Radio Broadcast (May 1928-Apr 1929)

SEPTEMBER, 1928 WHAT RADIO HAS DONE FOR AVIATION 289 from hour to hour was undoubtedly one of the leading factors in assisting the gallant crew to pilot the damaged airship safely back to land. The Norge also found radio of the greatest value for communication and direction finding on its polar flight. Commander Gottwaldt, who was in charge of the radio and meteorological services on board, reported that communication with the outside world was maintained practically throughout the flight until, by an unfortunate mishap that could not have been foreseen, the 300 foot trailing aerial, covered with ice, was broken during the last stages of the voyage through the vessel having to fly extremely low. Even after this the Norge was able to locate her position by means of the radio direction finder, for which a separate aerial, bound to the fabric of the airship, was used. Among Atlantic flyers with heavier-than-air machines. Commander Franco, who flew from Spain to South America in the spring of 1926, used a direction finder as well as an ordinary transmitter and receiver, to good effect. At the conclusion of that flight, Commander Franco and his navigator, Captain Ruiz de Alda, said: "We give full credit to the Marconi direction finder for route finding throughout the voyage." Commander Byrd, after his flight, said: " Radio will play a great part in the future transatlantic navigation of the air. Science has not yet developed any instrument that will enable the air navigator to locate himself in a fog except by radio bearings. It seems that undoubtedly transatlantic landing fields of the future will have in the vicinity several radio direction finding stations, so that if the airplane arrives in foggy weather it will be able to locate itself by these radio bearings." Perhaps, however, the most striking instance of the value of radio was its achievement during the wonderful flight of Captain Kingsfort-Smith and his companions in one of the greatest air adventures ever undertaken, the flight of the Southern Cross from California to Honolulu, from Honolulu to Suva, Fiji, and then to Australia. During their adventurous journey radio rendered great assistance to the navigators, and kept the world informed of every incident of the flight throughout the whole journey. RADIO IN THE FLYING ROUTINE OERHAPS even more important, however, than these big examples of what radio has done for flying, is the day-to-day routine radio work carried out on the European air lines. Marconi AD6 equipment — a 1 50-watt telephone-telegraph set with a trailing aerial — is standard equipment on all Imperial Airways machines and on the machines of many other European air lines. Every commercial airdome of importance in Europe is equipped with radio apparatus for communication and direction finding. At the London Air Port at Croydon the new radio station that has just been built replaces the one that has done duty there for the last seven years. The new station consists of a group of four 3-kw. transmitters, capable of telephonic and continuous wave and interrupted continuous wave telegraphic transmission, operated in conjunction with a radio direction finding receiver. This receiver has been specially designed for its work by the research department of the iVlarconi Company, and in addition to its remarkable selective characteristics it is arranged so that if required two or more circuits can be operated on different wavelengths for the reception of telephony and telegraphy on the same aerials. THE AIR PORT TRANSMITTERS The four transmitters and antenna system are located 4% miles from the flying field, leaving the field itself clear for taking off and landing. The antenna masts, placed at the corners of a 250-foot square, are 100 feet in height, and support four cage aerials of the inverted " L" type Constant use is made of radio facilities by the pilots on the European air lines, and some of the leaders among them have said more than once that they would hesitate to fly an air liner not equipped with radio. On two or three occasions flights have been made between London and the Continent on foggy days when the pilots have not seen the ground from the time they took off to the time they landed. For instance, in November last Captain A. S. Wilcockson, an Imperial Airways pilot, flew a Handley-Page Rolls Royce THE CONTROL TOWER The radio control room is located on the top floor of the tower of the Terminal Building at the Croydon Air Port. On the top of the tower are the directional antennas and a 100-foot horizontal antenna. plane from Paris to Croydon above a fog bank which obscured the ground practically the whole of the way. In spite of the denseness of the fog Captain Wilcockson completed his journey in 2 hours and 26 minutes, which was a good average time for the trip from Paris to London. When he started from Le Bourget at 8 a.m. visibility was about 1000 yards, and the weather report gave fog over most of the route except for patches of clear weather near the French coast. Five minutes after leaving Paris Captain Wilcockson found himself in dense fog and had to rise 2,000 feet to get above it. At this height the plane was flying in bright sunshine and continued to do so for the greater part of the journey. It was, however, necessary to fly entirely by compass bearing. The pilot asked for several bearings and positions from Croydon during the journey and these brought him in on a direct line to the Croydon Airdrome. There was one break in the fog. about 10 miles from Croydon, which enabled the pilot to recognize the ground and corroborate the fact that he was on the right bearing. The fog then closed in again and in his own words he "dropped right on to the airdrome." Captain Wilcockson said this was one of the worst fogs he had ever experienced but he had no doubt during the whole journey that he would get through in comfort, as his past experience with his radio apparatus had given him confidence that he could navigate on bearings through the fog, however dense it might be. " I had no difficulty at all in keeping in communication with Croydon at any time, whether 1 was in the fog, above it, or when coming down to the airdrome; but it would have been impossible to have made the journey without wireless," Captain Wilcockson said. There were five passengers on the machine. They had a very happy and comfortable journey and were quite thrilled with their novel experience. These are just a few of the things that radio has done and is still doing for flying.