Word: runway
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Last week at Newark Airport the Department of Commerce gave to air transport a device on which it had been at work for five years, to overcome the blind landing hazard. It consists of 1) a runway localizing beacon and 2) a radio beam along which the plane may glide to a three-point landing...
...abaft the cabin door. A fuselage tail, with control surfaces, is hooked onto the coupe's bustle-like stern (see cut). The driver (now a pilot) steps on the same gas throttle as before, steers with the same steering wheel, prods the same foot-brake, kites down the runway, climbs...
Across Cranwell Airdrome, near Lincoln, England, stretches a mile-long runway. It was built four years ago by the Royal Air Force to launch a giant monoplane on a nonstop flight to Cape Town...
Last week another ship stood at the head of the Cranwell runway. Like the first one, it was a Fairey-Napier. But it was equipped with improvements learned from the previous experiences. A "robot" steering device was installed. Running gear was made double-strong for rough landings. A cabin hatch was cut for observations of the stars. Fuel tanks were built to hold 1,000 gal. In the cabin was a bed for the pilot off watch. Experts spent months in plotting the course for favorable topography and weather...
Into the Fairey before dawn one day last week, climbed Squadron Leader Oswald Robert Gayford, 41, a stolid sharp-beaked pilot long seasoned in the R. A. F. After him went a handsome youngster named Flight-Lieut. Gilbert E. Nicholetts. As the big plane lumbered down the concrete runway, sparks spouted comet-like from her tailskid. It was 7:15 a.m. By 7 :15 p. m. she was roaring across the north coast of Africa. During most of the day, the "robot" controls had steadied her through thick weather. Not until they were over the Sahara that night could...