Perhaps the best indication of what we may expect of the aeroplane as a commercial carrier is embodied in the present plans of the manufacturers of aircraft. Using the past history of the heavier-than-air machines’ performance and their own experience and the experience of tens of thousands of flyers under all imaginable circumstances and conditions as a basis, they are building various types of aircraft. More than a score of American and British firms have already built and are putting upon the market large numbers of sports models. These machines are single and double seaters after the type of the famous Baby Nieuports, Spads, and British Sopwith Pups. They have a wing spread of anywhere from seventeen to thirty feet. The fuselage measures between ten and twenty feet. Some are equipped with one small motor generating from twenty horse-power up to ninety horse-power. Most of these motors are upright, like the ones used on motorcycles, and range from two to four cylinders. The whole machine will not weigh more than five hundred pounds and these models are able to fly at eighty to one hundred miles an hour and make an average of twenty miles or more on a gallon of gas. The price of these will depend on the demand, but most manufacturers believe they will sell for five hundred to a thousand dollars. These machines are so small that they can be landed on any road or field. Besides, the small amount of space they occupy will make it possible to house them inexpensively, and they can be used for any kind of cross-country flying or sporting purposes.
The second type of the sports model has a wing spread of twenty-six to thirty-eight feet. These wings can be folded back so that the aeroplane can be housed in a hangar ten by thirty feet with ample room for the owner to work indoors on the machine. The fuselage is proportionately larger than that on the smaller machine. This aeroplane is equipped with a four-cylinder upright motor or an air-cooled rotary motor of the Gnome style with nine or eleven cylinders, generating up to ninety horse-power. Some also have two small twenty horse-power engines geared to the one propeller so they can be throttled down, or in case one stalls the other can take the flyers to their aerodrome without being forced to land. Some models have two motors on the smaller machines. These aircraft will sell for about the price of a medium-cost automobile.
The two-passenger models are similar in design to the army training-machines. They have more powerful upright and V-type four or eight cylinder motors and generate two to three hundred horse-power. The fuselage is built so that the pilot sits in front of or beside the passenger. The control is dual. The machines are mostly tractors, but in a few cases the nacelle is built in front of the plane like a bomber, and the propeller and engine are behind. These pusher types obviate all the blind angles and afford an excellent unobstructed range of vision. They are especially good for hunters, who desire no obstruction in gunning for birds. In case of a crash, however, there is the added danger of having the motor crush the passengers underneath. The Canadian Government has sold over ten thousand of their training-machines to an American company, which is reselling them at a low price to men who wish to own an aeroplane.
The aero-mail type is about the same as the two-passenger model in wing spread and fuselage, but the motor is a twelve-cylinder V type and generates anywhere from 250 to 450 horse-power. Cost is not so much a consideration here as carrying capacity. Most of the two-seated fighting-machines built for war purposes can be adapted by the Post-Office Department for this purpose, and plans are afoot to extend the service all over the United States.
The big bombing bus type is designed for carrying great numbers of people from one aerodrome to another. These machines are biplanes and triplanes with a wing spread of anywhere from 48 to 150 feet. They are driven by V-type, twelve-cylinder engines generating 400 to 700 horse-power. They have one or two fuselages in the centre but the nacelles are usually forward of the wings, so that nothing obstructs the vision of the passengers. These machines will be sold to transportation companies, which will make a business of carrying people from aerodrome to aerodrome. They are so large and are equipped with so many motors that they are not intended to be landed anywhere except on properly prescribed flying-fields. Several transportation companies are already organized for that purpose.
All the above types of aircraft are so designed that pontoons or flying-boats can be substituted for wheels and landing-gear, and so that most aircraft manufacturers can make both. Of course, in most cases the boats and the motors are made by different manufacturers. Several companies, however, construct aeroplanes complete with motors.
Naturally no manufacturing industry can exist without a potential market. Aircraft manufacturers are sure the majority of the twenty thousand flyers and hundred thousand aero mechanics who have learned their trade in the Great War will want to fly either machines of their own or of somebody else or of some transaerial company. The aeronautical engineers have, therefore, designed the sports type for the young fellows who wish to race in the air, travel from country town to country town, from lake to river, or to commute from country to city. Since these machines fly faster than the fastest bird or the fleetest animal, they will afford great sport for gunners. Indeed, the machines have already been used with such disastrous effects upon the bird that many hunters say it is not good sportsmanship to hunt from them. In that case, perhaps, the farmers will hire the daring young aviators to hunt down the crows and hawks with these dragons of the air.
Be that as it may, this sports type is a great convenience for a person who works in a city located on a large lake or on a river and who wishes to live far in the country. Indeed, he may live a hundred miles up or down that body of water and in less than an hour he can fly to or from his work. If it is cold he can put on his electrically heated clothing and keep as warm as in a limousine. If he has engine trouble he can land anywhere and fix his machine and then fly on. Since air resistance is much less than road resistance he can traverse the distance much cheaper than in an inexpensive automobile. If there is no body of water near his place of business he can land his cross-country flier in the park or flying-field just as easily as on the water. This same machine will lend itself to all kinds of pleasure flying, and no other sport gives so much exhilaration, scenic view, and adventuresome excitement as the aeroplane; and the price will be within the means of many young men.
The two-passenger models are being sold to persons of means who have flown or wish to fly and take up friends. After a few years the manufacturers expect there will be a considerable body of these enthusiasts. The greatest sale of these machines, however, will be to the government for the aero mail service. At first two machines will be necessary for every flier in that service, and one in every aerodrome for every one in the air, so with fifty established routes we shall require several hundred machines. Moreover, the manufacturers expect that these machines fitted with either a fuselage or a boat will be employed very extensively by mining companies for carrying precious metals in South America and Alaska. At the present time llamas are used to carry copper down from the Andes. They are so slow and have to descend to the smelters by such devious routes that valuable time is lost in the transportation. By loading the ore into the hold of a flying-boat, which can land on the lakes and ponds in case of engine trouble, the time will be so materially diminished as to reduce the cost of the metal very considerably. Besides, flying in a straight line as the bird flies, at a speed of not less than a hundred miles an hour, will expedite the work of the engineer and the surveyor over the jungles and unexplored and inaccessible portions of South America and Africa, as well as in other distant countries.
The conditions in Alaska are analogous, though the climate is different. Dogs and sleds are now used, and they, too, have to travel roundabout routes from mine to town. Of course, an aeroplane fitted with skids or runners can be landed on snow or ice as easily as on land. It now takes two days to sled gold down from one mine in the Yukon to Nome, which could be brought out in three hours by aeroplanes flying over the tops of the mountains.