A Shortt “pusher” seaplane equipped with a one-and-a-half-pounder gun.From a photograph by Bain News Service.British-built Curtiss flying-boat, at Brighton, England.
A Shortt “pusher” seaplane equipped with a one-and-a-half-pounder gun.From a photograph by Bain News Service.British-built Curtiss flying-boat, at Brighton, England.
A Shortt “pusher” seaplane equipped with a one-and-a-half-pounder gun.
From a photograph by Bain News Service.
British-built Curtiss flying-boat, at Brighton, England.
But, aside from the matter of weight and horse-power, the aeromotor has been called upon to perform at altitudes of as high as 30,000 feet as efficiently as on the ground. Since the atmospheric pressure at that height weighs a great deal less than at sea-level the flow of gasoline and lubricants is very much decreased, so that the efficiency of the motor may fall off proportionately. To meet these requirements the aviation motor must be especially designed, and since the vibration of the propeller shakes the frail frame on which the engine is mounted, the materials must have the greatest strength and resistance.
Nevertheless, in both types of motor, the rotary air-cooled and the stationary V type, the engineers have succeeded in making engines that would climb still higher than the 30,500 ceiling already made, if the aviators could stand the cold or have enough hydrogen to keep them from fainting.
The motor then is the heart of the heavier-than-air machine, and when it stops the aeroplane must volplane or fall to the earth, a slave to the laws of gravity.