5T 3> 191 l] 



NATURE 



i55 



THE CIRCUIT OF BRITAIN BY AEROPLANE. 

 'T'HE most remarkable race the world has yet seen is 

 -*■ over, and Naval-Lieutenant Conneau, flying a Bleriut 

 monoplane under the nam.' of " Beaumont," has won the 

 red by The Daily Mail for the circuit of 

 Britain — a total distance of iotu miles in 22I1. 28m. iSs. of 

 flying time, or just under 45 miles an hour.' 

 The basic idea of the race was to test the trustworthi- 

 ness of the competing aeroplanes. With this end in view, 

 five parts of the machine and five parts of the engine were 

 il, viz. the wings, rudder, elevator and fuselage, 

 two cylinders, and various portions of the crank-case. 

 Two "i each oi the li\. parts thus marked had to be in 

 throughout the race. The motor was marked with 

 lectric needle, tie- fuselage with burnt-in letters, and 

 lh. other parts with wired-on lead seals, their position 

 indicated with red paint on the fabric to assist the 

 1 rs at the various . ontrols. 

 The course was divided into five sections, which were 

 divided, with the exception of the first and last, into 

 follows : — Section 1. — Brooklands-Hendon (20 

 miles. Section 2. — Hendon-Harrogate (1S2 miles), Harro- 

 8 miles), Newcastle-Edinburgh (93 miles). 

 >« 3. — Edinburgh-Stirling (31 miles), Ntirling-i dasgow 



{22 miles), Glasgow-Carlisle (86 miles), Carlisle-M: 



1 103 miles), Manchester-Bristol (.141 miles). Section 4. — 

 Bristol-Exeter (65 miles), Exeter-Salisbury Plain (83 miles), 

 Salisbury Plain-Brighton (76 miles). Section 5. — Brighton- 

 ds (40 miles). 



on was thus made for the competitors to experi- 



kind of countrj , while the climate provided, as 



the event proved, every kind of weather. Twelve hours' 



on the ground in a control had to be taken 



in Si tions 2, 3, and 4, and no competitor was allowed to 



start in any of the Sections ;, 4, and 5 unless the full 



had been taken in the previous section. 'Phis 



wise provision was made to ensure that the competitors 



had some rest and were not over-driven in the round. The 



times were taken from the start from one control to the 



arrival at the next, any stoppages in between counting as 



flying time, while any resting lime taken in any section 



over and above the twelve hours specified was also connted 



as flying time. 



On Saturday, July 22, the start was made at 4 p.m. 

 from Brooklands. Of tb. original thirty entrants, twenty- 

 eight were possible starters on the day ; but only twenty 

 actually went to the post, and only seventeen got away. 

 Porte 1 1 tip.rdussin monoplane) and F. C. Jenkins 

 (Blackburn monoplane) both fell just alter starting, 

 smashing their machines, fortunately without injury to 

 themselves, while Gordon England (Bristol biplane) could 

 not get sufficient altitude to leave the ground. The rest 

 reached Hendon, Vedrines making the fastest time, 

 19m. 48s., winning therein the right to go first on 

 Monday. 



Monday was perhaps the most remarkable day of the 

 race. At the earliest dawn the machines began to fly- 

 away to the north, and when night fell they were scattered 

 all along the line from London to Edinburgh. Before noon 

 Vedrines and " Beaumont " both reached Edinburgh, 

 where Valentine (Deperdussin monoplane) landed soon after 

 four in the afternoon. Hamel (BlcViot monoplane) arrived 

 at Newcastle, Cody (Cody biplane) at Harrogate, and the 

 rest 1." between Harrogate and Hendon. 



Tuesdaj night saw both the leaders at Bristol, Valentine 

 at Glasgow, Hamel at Edinburgh, and Cody near Durham. 

 On Wednesday, at a few minutes past two in the after- 

 noon, the race was won, " Beaumont " beating Vedrines 

 on time by ih. qm. 47s. This result was chiefly due to 

 the fart that the latter mistook the way at Bristol and 

 alighted on the wrong ground, breaking a stay In doing 

 so. .mil much precious lime was lost before he was able 

 to reach the actual aerodrome. Both arrived with all their 

 marks intact. 



There is nothing astonishing in the fact that they so far 

 outdistanced the rest of the competitors. Thev are both 

 acknowledged pilots of the very first rank, with great 

 experience in cross-country flying, while their machines and 

 motors were the pick of their types. 



r Up to he time of going to press no official times have been issued. 



NO. 2179, VOL. 87] 



Beaumont's " Blcriot monoplane was of the usual 

 cross-country type, fitted with a 50 horse-power Gnome 

 motor and a Normale propeller. Its total supporting area 

 is 17-5 metres; span, 8-9 metres; length, 705 metres; and 

 w eight, 230 kilos. 



\ edrines's Morane-Borel monoplane is very similar to 

 the Blcriot, except in its landing chassis, the arrangement 

 of the elevator, and the camber of its wings. In plain 

 view also its wing tips are rounded from front to real 

 instead of from rear to front like the Blcriot. It was 

 fitted with a 50 horse-power Gnome motor and an Inte- 

 grale propeller. Its total supporting area is 175 metres ; 

 span, 9.3 metres; length, 6-7 metres; and weight, 200 

 kilos. 



As aviators steer their way by map and compass, the 

 winner naturally had, owing to his nautical training. 

 considerable advantage. The chief landmarks to the flyer 

 are rivers and lakes, roads, railway lines, tin- contours ol 

 villages and towns, and the masses of deep colour afforded 

 by woods. Good artificial guides are smoke columns in 

 isolated positions, kites or balloons carrying flags, and 

 white-washed sloping roofs of prominent buildings. A 

 good map must be masterly in its omission of unnei - 

 detail, and must show distinctly the varying heights of the 

 country and the landing places. One difficulty is the 

 absence of trustworthy news, from the- aviatoi 's point of 

 view, as to the weather 100 miles ahead. The opinion of 

 the average man, who has no conception of what consti- 

 tutes good flying weather, and is not equipped with any 

 apparatus for sounding the air, is quite worthless. As th- 

 ing becomes commoner we shall, no doubt, see a national 

 system of meteorological stations linked up by telephone or 

 wireless telegraphs, (harts of the atmosphere will I 

 common use so soon as regular services from point to 

 point are established. Profs. A. L. Rotch and A. H. 

 Palmer have foreseen this, and have just issued a pioneer 

 work giving charts of the conditions prevalent at various 

 times of the year in the vicinity of the Blue Hill Observa- 

 tory, Mass., especially designed lor the usi ol aeronauts 

 .mil aviators. 



Compasses for aeroplane work have onlj recently I 



made practicable. One of the most trustworthy is that 

 invented by Mr. V.. II. Clift. and it was largely used by 

 competitors. The difficulty hitherto has been the iron and 

 steel work, the framing, motor, wire stays, and so forth 

 that are used on every aeroplane. A deflection, sometimes 

 as great as 30°, is consequently set up, which has 

 corrected by " swinging," that is to say, the head of the 

 machine is moved to every point of the compass in turn, 

 and the errors noted and brought to their lowest dimensions 

 by means of magnets and soft iron balls and bars. Errors 

 are then tabulated and reduced to a curve, which can be 

 plotted to accord with the direction of flight. From this 

 it can be seen that compasses are still far from perfect, and 

 are thrown out by the movement of metal parts, their 

 breakage, or removal. 



In reviewing the race, one is inclined to regret that the 

 biplanes showed up so badly. The cry has gone out that 

 the biplane is dead. This, of course, is sheer nonsense. 

 One of the finest machines built is the Curtiss biplane ; 

 the Wright biplane holds all the duration records in 

 America ; the Breguet biplane holds the record for weight- 

 carrying ; the Cody biplane may not be very fast, but it 

 is stable and trustworthy ; the Bristol biplane went round 

 the European Circuit in very creditable time ; and the Roe 

 biplane has shown what can be done in the way of speed. 

 The monoplane for scouting, for racing, and perhaps for 

 ease of transport, has proved itself superior, but the biplane 

 has many points in its favour which cannot be disregarded. 

 Another machine one would have wished to see do 

 better was the Etrich monoplane, flown by Lieut. Bier with 

 Lieut. Banfield as passenger, which, as the outcom 

 years of labour, is probably the most scientifically con- 



strt d monoplane, both from the aeronautical and 



engineering point of view, in existence, ft broke down, 

 like many others, from engine trouble. 



People viewing the race from a distance, or by the more 

 convenient method of newspapers, are inclined to enter- 

 tain the idea that man can now get up and soar away to 

 the ends of the earth on his lawful occasions with very 

 lint trouble-, lint they reckon without all the vital factors 



