Evening star. [volume], February 14, 1932, Page 5, Image 77

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
itJ - — — ■■ ■ ■1 ■ ---
Conquest of the Stratosphere at Hand
• _ _
Climbing Ten Miles Into the Shy, We May Fly From Nezv Yorh to
Paris in Ten Hours, Safe From Rarefied Air in Sealed Cabins,
.While Zooming Along at the Dizzy Speed, of Four Hundred
Miles an Hour!
Prof. Piccard (shown at the left) and his assistant were fdad to pet back to the
realm of humans after their renttm-kablc journey in a sealed balloon to the air
tO miles above the earth.
I BRUSSELS.
IF ever there was a typical '■professor-,"
it is Piccard! A man of medium height,
he has the traditional flowing locks, the
high, wide, intellectual brow, the thought
ful eyes glinting behind .spectacles and the
courtesy one always associates with the
academic.
We were chatting over his adventure in the
Hummer of 1931 when he and his assistant,
fCipfer, made their daring balloon ascent koto
rarefied upper air, called the stratosphere
Lan attempt to make investigations as to
possibilities of aircraft travel at high alti
tudes. He received me in his laboratory, dad
|p an overall coat, smiling as he peered through
bte spectacles at my notebook and pencil. Test
tubes and bottles in profusion lined the wall
Shelves, and littered the benches; Bunsen burn
gag, retorts, charts, all the paraphernalia of
Chemistry and science hemmed us in as we
Sat down to talk.
‘T was satisfied with my last attempt In
t|ee stratosphere,’’ said Prof. Piccard, “Hie
Desuits obtained were extremely valuable to
aviation, and from the standpoint of naviga
tion they confirmed all my theories. Kipfer
ri I proved that it is possible to navigate
the stratosphere for at least 17 hours in a
closed cabin without feeling any lH effects.
Paring the whole time we were up there
neither I nor my assistant experienced the
slightest feeling of nausea or intoxication.
"We were the pioneers who proved that in
vestigations can be made in the stratosphere
at a height exceeding six miles without any
iMc. This in itself is an important result. I
am of opinion that with the same balloon I
would be able to rise to a height of more than
ta miles if I went by myself and had a suffi
manev of ballast.
ja 1/HY am I so keen on exploring the fly
W ing possibilities of this upper atmos
phere? Well, you see, viewed from the avi
ator's standpoint, we know that the higher a
plane flies the quicker it must go in order
that the wings support it; but we also know
$kat the higher it flies the quicker it is able
10 go, because resistance is reduced.
“For example, in order that an- airplane may
IJy at a height of 9 miles, that is to say, in a
Stratum where the density of the atmosphere
fe one-ninth of the normal density, it must
fly at three times its normal speed. All the
aerodynamic forces remain constant and the
euependiture of effort incurred for eaeh mile
flown remains the same, but as the sum total
of the power produced must be obtained in a
space of time that is three times shorter than
the normal, the motor must be three times
more powerful.
•'The possibilities that such a development
of aviation holds are enormous. And if I leave
out of count the enormous gain in time thus
achieved, there is even a greater advantage
produced, thanks to the rapidity at which such
Sights will be made. As we all know, one of
the biggest difficulties which the aviator cross
ing the Atlantic has to cope with is that any
meteorological provisions that he may have at
the moment he nets off on his flight are abso
lutely valueless for his landing in view of the
length of time that has elapsed. The aviator
of the future who will cross the Atlantic in the
stratosphere will meet with no weather sur
prises.
“Of course, the rocket system of transoceanic
travel is far from being realized, but where
force, combustible mass and speed are con
cerned, adequate calculations are already made
and, thanks to the proper combustible and
liquid oxygen, ultra-rapid navigation between
continents outside the atmosphere has now
become a possibility. This is an enormous gain.
"As far as navigation between planets, prob
able flights to Mars and so on, this is still »
problem to which we have found no solution,
and we are not likely to reach one just yet.
But I do not think it is an impossibility. We
will undoubtedly achieve these things one day.
111 HAVE no intention of going up again in a
I balloon. One experience such as that
which befell Kipfer and myself this year is
quite enough for a lifetime. Hi any case, my
wife was so worried during the whole time I
was up that I have promised her never to re
peat the experiment. Let others continue in
the airy path which I have traced. I shall
content myself with improving the instrumental
side, and thus enable further experiments to
be made in a field which opens boundless possi
bilities. I shall also take an active part in the
preparations for the new flight in the strato
sphere, which will take place next Summer. On
this occasion the crew will be entirely Belgian
in character. Already we have chosen the
physicist, but the pilot has yet to be selected.
“As for the new equipment of the armored
cabin of the balloon, certain modifications are
contemplated. For instance, when we went up
the first time there was quite a possibility of
our not coming through alive, owing to the
valve cable being placed outside and thus being
By Prof.
Auguste
Piccard
•
As Told to
M aj.
Dudley Heath cote
TO MARS
SOME DAY!
Thanks to combustible and liquid
oxygen, ultra-rapid navigation be
tween the continents of the earth
outside the atmosphere has now
become a possibility, says Prof.
Auguste Piccard.
“As for • navigation between
planets, probable flights to Mars
and so on, this is still a problem
to which we have found no solution,
and we are not likely to reach one
just yet.
“But I do not think it is an im
possibility. We will undoubtedly
achieve these things one day.”
outside our direct control.
This time the cable works
on a windlass inside the
watertight nacelle and with
in reach. I personally will
supervise the sendoff of the
balloon, but that is all.
“As for the possibilities
now open to us in aerial
navigation in the strato
sphere, I must first of all
draw attention to the impor
tant developments that have
taken place in aeronautical
construction since our first
experiment. If you remem
ber, experiments made pr»
viously with round balloons
had established that at any
altitude from 10 to it miles
air was rarefied and the at
mosphere was free of aerial
currents, clouds or fogs,
thus allowing airplanes to
attain fantastic speeds.
“In our turn we found
that in order to fly in the
stratosphere, airplanes would
have to possess oarlingues
and cabins hermetically
cloeed and airtight so as to
avoid fatal consequences to
pUot and passengers which
would result from the enor
mous diminution of pres
sure, the rarefaction of the
air and the intense cold at
such heights.
“Accordingly, the air
planes which are being built
by Junkers and Farm an to
fly in the stratosphere take
all the new factors into con
sideration. The Junkers
plane, for instance, not only
has a carlingue and arma
ture made of duralumin,
Continued on
Eighteenth
Page
This conception by the artist shows the limits of aerial transportation as die
dosed by the balloon experiment of Prof. Piccard. Airplanes wrtt be able *#
to at terrific speed above 10 miles because of low resistance.