Tesla on Rapid Flight

The Famous Scientist Gives Interesting Views on Aerial Navigation.

(From an Article by F. M. Kerby in Reconstruction.)

Sitting in his office on the twenty-fifth floor of the Woolworth Tower, J. Pierpont Jones, American business man, will one day glance at his watch and discover it is 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

“By George,” he will say, buzzing for his Secretary, “if I don’t hurry I’ll be late for that dinner engagement at the Savoy!” And as his Secretary answers the buzzer

“Charles, when does the next London bus leave?”

“Three-thirty, sir,” says Charles. “You can make it if you hurry. The car is waiting.”

And fifteen minutes later J. Pierpont Jones will emerge from the elevator on the aeronautic landing stage of lower Manhattan, climb into the hermetically sealed fuselage of the New York-London Airline Limited, which will rise promptly at 3:30 p. m. At 7 that night he will climb out of his compartment on the landing stage on the Thames Embankment, and descend to meet his friend for dinner.

Eight Miles in Air.

The three-hour aeroplane trip from New York to London, flying above the storm level of eight miles above the earth’s surface, is the possibility of the immediate future.

This is not my prediction. It is the result of sixteen pages of close calculation in higher mathematics made by Nikola Tesla to test and check up other pages of intricate calculations made by Samuel D. Mott, charter member of the Aero Club of America.

Mr. Mott asserts that the three-hour trip to London from New York is a question of rising into a rarefied air where the air pressure is only one-fifth what it is at the earth’s surface, at which point an “altiplane” — the machine of the future — may be expected to fly five times as fast as at the earth’s surface. And if the speed of the aeroplane is increased not five times but only one-fifth, Mr. Mott says the trip will be made anyhow in the rarefied air eight miles above the earth’s surface in not more than twelve hours’ running time.

And Nikola Tesla agrees that taking a plane to such an altitude must result in great increase of speed, although he does not wish, in the absence of exact knowledge of certain factors entering into the problem, to predict exact speeds.

Speaking before the Pan-American Aeronautic Convention at Atlantic City Mr. Mott asserted that in order to avoid being weather-bound as were the aviators at Newfoundland, it will be necessary to construct planes that will rise above the storm limit.

“I submit,” he said, “that waiting indefinitely for ideal weather conditions for long-distance flying over land or sea will not do for the demand of commerce. Therefore I would bring to your attention the possibilities of the altitude plane or altiplane or hydroplane, to go into the stillness of nature above the weather.”

Mr. Tesla, in a recent interview, took exception to several of these views, stating in part:

“I doubt that it will be possible to rise as high as fifteen or twenty miles, which is the opinion expressed by Mr. Mott. At the height of twenty miles there is only about seven per cent. of oxygen in the air instead of twenty-one per cent. which is present close to the ground, and there would be great trouble in securing the oxygen supply for the combustion of the fuel, not to speak of other limitations.

Explodes as a Fish.

“However, at a height of eight miles the decrease of oxygen can be overcome for both engine and aviator. Of course provision would have to be made for supplying the aviator and passengers with oxygen. In all probability they would have to be entirely enclosed just as a diver is enclosed. Our highest mountains are five miles, and the rarefaction of the air makes climbing them difficult. Above five miles provision would certainly have to be made for supply the aviator. If he were not enclosed, the decrease of pressure due to the thinner air would result disastrously. The human mechanism is adjusted to a pressure of nearly fifteen pounds per square inch.”

Tesla explained that the effect would be the same as that of bringing a deep-sea fish, accustomed to live a mile below the surface, to the surface of the water. The fish simply explodes for lack of pressure which its body is built to withstand.

With proper protection of the aviator and an artificial supply of oxygen Tesla believes that flights at the eight-mile altitude are quite possible.

“Then there will be great progress with the lighter-than-air machine, and we may soon expect the advent of a dirigible of the Zeppelin type as a common vehicle for travel. Contrary to the general belief, such a vessel can be propelled more rapidly than an airplane, and it will be, on the whole, much safer. Furthermore, it will give to the passengers the comforts that are necessary in order to make this form of travel popular. Of course, in the practical use of these monstrous structures, formidable obstacles will be encountered. They are susceptible to damage by storms, and I believe also from certain danger from lightning, which will not be obviated by the use of helium gas. But I expect to see these difficulties overcome.”