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¶ A new wind tunnel, largest in the world, 60 ft. wide and 30 ft. high, in which a full- size airplane may be tested in an airflow of 115 m. p. h. The tunnel consists of two yawning mouths, between which an airplane is mounted on a high caisson. Wind for the tests is blown by propeller-fans driven by two 4,000-h. p. motors. First test will be made with a 20-ft. model of the Navy's new dirigible Akron, to determine how to build the tail surfaces.
¶ A seaplane testing channel one-half mile long, 24 ft. wide, 12 ft. deep. An electric towing carriage which straddles the channel, can haul hulls or pontoons through the water at 60 m. p. h.
¶ A "nonstalling" attachment which prevents the pilot of a plane from pulling his control stick back far enough to cause a stall.
¶ A "safety fuel" developed by chemists of Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey, which burns as slowly as furnace oil, yet, it is claimed, has as much power as gasoline.
Diesel Comeback
Comparatively little has been heard of the Packard Diesel airplane motor since its sensational introduction at the All- American Aircraft Show of 1930 (TIME, April 14, 1930). Some manufacturers (including Ford, Stinson, Buhl) offered the engine as optional equipment in their planes, but few were sold last year. Owners and operators, while aware of the engine's worthy characteristics (oil burning, no ignition system, no carburetion, no fire hazard) were content to wait until it had proved itself in others' hands.
Last week at Jacksonville Beach, Fla. the Packard Diesel brought itself sharply back into prominence. It kept a Bellanca plane aloft for 84 hr. 33 min. without refuelling, thus recapturing for the U. S. the world record from the French pilots Bossourtrot & Rossi by 9 hr. 10 min. At the controls of the Bellanca were two Packard testpilots: short, bald Walter Lees, who drove a horsecar in Saint Augustine, Fla. before the War to earn money for flying lessons; and big, black-haired Frederick Brossy, son of a wealthy Detroit businessman.
The 3½-day flight, in which the plane traveled far enough to have reached Japan from Jacksonville, was the third attempt of Lee & Brossy to break the endurance record. In March they were thwarted by a fuel leak. In April they broke the U. S. record, were within 1 hr. 35 min. of the world record when a line squall drove them down.
Cow Flight
Folksong says it is a good thing that cows don't fly in Mobile, in Mobile, but last week a cow flew in Ohio, from Cincinnati to Washington Court House, to publicize that town's Union Stockyard Co. and American Airways Inc. Commission Merchant D. F. ("Bud") Brown arranged the stunt, sent out green handbills proclaiming: COWS CAN FLY!
* One who did not fear was Professor Placard's twin brother Jean, an engineer of Wilmington, Del. The Brothers Piccard are over 6 ft. tall, look exactly alike. As students in Munich they played twin-pranks. Once they alternated posing for an unsuspecting sculptor. Once, just after Auguste had been shaved by a barber, in walked Jean with a three-day stubble to collect a wager that "his whiskers grew faster than any others in the world."