Part 1 (2/2)
”Half a dozen of us took him on; not that we could afford to throw away an equivalent to ten thousand pounds, but because we had sufficient faith in the Old Country to feel a.s.sured that the accomplishment of a flight round the world would be the work of a British owned and flown machine.
”Shortly after the wager was accepted came the news that R34 had flown from East Fortune to New York in 108 hours, making the return journey in 76 hours. That rather staggered General Outed, I fancy, and he had a greater shock when Alc.o.c.k and Brown covered nearly 2,000 miles between Newfoundland and Ireland without a single stop.
”Things from a British aviation point of view looked particularly rosy; then for some obscure reason our Air Board appeared to let the whole matter of aerial navigation slide, or, at any rate they gave no encouragement. The big dirigibles were dismantled and sold; powerful aeroplanes were sc.r.a.pped, air-stations were closed, and in a parsimonious wave of retrenchment even our old Royal Air Force was threatened with ignominious relegation to a corps under the control of the War Office.
”About three months ago a wealthy Swiss--a M. Chauva.s.se--who had made a pile in the United States, offered a prize to the value in British money of 25,000 to be given to the first airman to circ.u.mnavigate the globe, either in a lighter or a heavier than air machine. The prize is open to all comers, and already a Yankee and a German have announced their intention of competing.”
”A Hun!” exclaimed Kenyon. ”I thought that Fritz, under the terms of the armistice, had to surrender all his aircraft.”
”But he hasn't,” remarked Fosterd.y.k.e, drily. ”Nor is he likely to; and if the Allies haven't the means to enforce the terms, that's not my affair. If a Hun does compete, let him. That's my view. Providing he doesn't resort to any of his dirty tricks, there's no valid reason why the door should be banged in his face. Because he's down and out is no reason why we should continue to sit on him. Commercially, I regard German goods as a means to reduce the present extortionate prices of things in England. I'm no believer in dumping, I never was; but if our manufacturers cannot compete with the products of a country beaten in war and torn by internal troubles, then there's something wrong somewhere. But I am digressing.
”Briefly, the terms of the contest are as follows: any type of machine or engine can be employed, and as many descents as are necessary to replenish fuel and stores. A start can be made from any place chosen by the compet.i.tor, but the machine must finish at the same spot within twenty days. Again, any route can be chosen, so that full advantage can be taken of existing air stations, but--and this is a vital point--in order to fairly circ.u.mnavigate the globe, compet.i.tors must pa.s.s within one degree of a position immediately opposite the starting-point. Do you follow me?”
”What is known in navigation as Great Circle Sailing,” replied Bramsdean. ”If a start is made somewhere on the 50th parallel North, the halfway time will be somewhere 50 degrees South, with a difference of 180 degrees of longitude.”
”That's it,” agreed Sir Reginald. ”Now the difficulty arises where to find two suitable places answering to these conditions. With the exception of a small part of Cornwall the whole of Great Britain lies north of lat.i.tude 50.... Therefore, to reach the 50th parallel in the Southern Hemisphere would mean making a position far south'ard of New Zealand--where, I take it, there are no facilities for landing and taking in petrol.
”Nor is the vast extent of the United States any better off in that respect. I think I am right in saying that there is no habitable land diametrically opposite to any place in Uncle Sam's Republic.”
Fosterd.y.k.e produced a small globe from a corner of the room in order to confirm his statement.
”And the old Boche is a jolly sight worse off,” said Kenyon. ”I don't suppose any British Dominion will tolerate him. It's certain he won't be allowed to fly over any Allied fortress, so where is he?”
”Paying the penalty for his misdeeds,” replied Sir Reginald, grimly. ”It's not exactly a case of vae victis. If he'd played his game, he would have taken his licking with a better grace because it wouldn't have hurt him so much.”
”How many compet.i.tors are there for the Chauva.s.se Stakes, sir?” asked Bramsdean.
”A Yank, a Hun, and myself,” replied Fosterd.y.k.e. ”That is, up to the present. For some reason the idea hasn't caught on with our fellows. Probably there'll be a rush of entries later on--perhaps too late. I'll show you my little craft; but before doing so I'll give you a few details of the contest.
”My idea is to start from Gibraltar--for the actual race, of course. I'll have to take my airs.h.i.+p there, but that's a mere detail. Why Gibraltar? Here's an encyclopaedia, Kenyon. Look up the position of Gib.”
”Lat. 36 6' N.; long. 5 21' W.,” replied Kenyon, after consulting the work.
”And the antipodes of Gib. would be lat. 36 6' S.; long. 174 39' E.,” continued the baronet. ”The longitude, of course, being easily determined by adding 180 to that of Gibraltar. Now the next thing to be done (as a matter of fact I've determined it already) is to find a habitable spot approximating to the second set of figures. Look up Auckland, Kenyon.”
”Auckland is lat. 36 52' S.; long. 174 46' E.,” replied Kenneth. ”Why, that's less than a degree either way.”
”Exactly,” agreed Fosterd.y.k.e. ”The next point is to determine the air route between the two places, so as to make the best of the prevailing winds. When one has to maintain an average speed of fifty miles an hour for twenty days the advantage of a following wind cannot be ignored.”
”Your 'bus'll do more than that, sir,” remarked Peter Bramsdean.
”She'll do two hundred an hour,” declared the baronet, emphatically. ”I haven't had a trial spin yet, but she'll come up to my expectations. It's the stops that lower the average. Naturally I mean to take the east to west course. It means a saving of twenty-four hours. If I took the reverse direction, I'd be a day to the bad on returning to the starting-point. The actual course I'll have to work out later. That's where I want expert a.s.sistance. Also I want the aid of a couple of experienced navigators. And so that's why I sent for you.”
”We're on it,” declared both chums.
”I thought as much,” rejoined Fosterd.y.k.e with a smile. ”There's one thing I ought to make clear--the matter of terms.”
Kenyon made a deprecatory gesture.
”Not so fast, Kenyon,” protested his chief. ”It's a rock-bottom proposition. Twenty-five per cent. of the prize if we are successful is your collective share. If we fail, then I'm broke--absolutely. I've sunk my last penny into the concern, because I'm hanged if I'm going to sit still and let a foreigner be the first to make an aerial circ.u.mnavigation of the globe. Now let me introduce you to the airs.h.i.+p 'Golden Hind.'”
CHAPTER III.
--THE ”GOLDEN HIND”
”Appropriate name the 'Golden Hind,'” remarked Bramsdean, as the three ex-R.A.F. officers made their way towards the concealed hangar. ”That's what Drake's s.h.i.+p was called, and he was the first Englishman to circ.u.mnavigate the world.”
”Yes,” replied Fosterd.y.k.e. ”We must take it as an augury that this 'Golden Hind' will do in the air what her namesake did on the sea.”
”Not in every respect, I hope,” said Kenneth Kenyon, with a laugh. ”Drake did a considerable amount of filibustering on his voyage, I believe.”
”Ah, yes,” answered Sir Reginald. ”Those were good old days. Now left,” he added. ”Mind yourselves, the brambles are a bit dangerous.”
Turning off the gra.s.s-grown road and down a side path, the two chums found themselves entering a dense thicket that formed an outer fringe of the pine wood.
”Short cut,” remarked Fosterd.y.k.e, laconically. ”Now, there you are.”
A glade in the woods revealed the end of a lofty corrugated iron shed, the hangar in which the ”Golden Hind” was fast approaching completion. The baronet ”knew his way about.” He knew how to deal with the dictatorial and often completely muddled officials who ran the Surplus Disposals Board, and had succeeded in obtaining, at a comparatively low cost, a practically new airs.h.i.+p shed, together with an enormous quant.i.ty of material.
”Now tell me what you think of her,” he said, throwing open a small door in the rear end of the building.
Kenyon and Bramsdean paused in astonishment at what they saw. The ”Golden Hind” was neither airs.h.i.+p nor aeroplane in the strict sense of the word, but a hybrid embodying the salient features of both. The fuselage, constructed almost entirely of aluminium, was a full 120 feet in length, and enclosed so as to form a series of cabins or compartments. Amids.h.i.+ps these attained a beam of 15 feet, tapering fore and aft until the end compartments terminated in a sharp wedge. Wherever there were observation windows they were ”glazed” with light but tough fire-proof celluloid, sufficiently strong to withstand wind-pressure.
On either side of the hull, as Fosterd.y.k.e termed it, were six planes arranged in pairs, each being 30 feet in fore and aft direction, and projecting 25 feet from the side of the fuselage. Thus the total breadth of the ”Golden Hind” was well under 60 feet. On angle brackets rising obliquely from the fuselage were six large aluminium propellers, chain-driven by means of six 350-h.p. motors.
”Some power there,” remarked Kenyon, enthusiastically.
”Rather,” agreed Sir Reginald. ”Sufficient to lift her independently of the gas-bag, while in the unlikely event of the motors giving out there is enough lifting power in the envelope to keep her up for an indefinite period. Did you notice the small propellers in the wake of the large ones?”
”Yes, sir,” replied Bramsdean. ”Left-handed blades.”
”Precisely,” agreed Fosterd.y.k.e. ”They work on the same shaft, only in a reverse direction. It's a little stunt of mine to utilise the eddies in the wake of the main propellers. Yes, petrol-driven. I tried to find an ideal fuel, one that is non-inflammable or practically so, except in compression; but that's done me so far. There's a huge fortune awaiting the chemist who succeeds in producing a liquid capable of conforming to these conditions. I even made a cordite-fired motor once--something on the Maxim-gun principle, fed by cordite grains from a hopper. It did splendidly as far as developing power was concerned, but the difficulty of excessive consumption and the pitting of the walls of the cylinder did me. However, my experiments haven't all been failures. Now look at the gas-bag.”
”It's only partly inflated,” observed Peter.
”No, fully,” corrected Fosterd.y.k.e. ”The envelope is a rigid one of aluminium, subdivided into forty-nine compartments, each of which contains a flexible ballonet. Each ballonet is theoretically proof against leakage--in practice there is an almost inappreciable porosity, which hardly counts for a comparatively short period, say a month. The gas isn't hydrogen, nor is it the helium we used during the war. Helium, although practically non-inflammable, is heavier than hydrogen. Fortunately, I hit upon a rather smart youngster who had been in a Government laboratory before he joined the R.A.F. With his a.s.sistance I discovered a gas that is not only lighter than hydrogen, but is as non-inflammable as helium. I've named the stuff 'Brodium,' after the youngster who helped me so efficaciously. When this stunt's over, we're going to work the gas on a commercial basis, but for the present it's advisable to keep it a secret.
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