JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
Well, what is really was, or what this was intended to be in this memory of a possible aviation future--or naval future, as this airship was really a flying boat, an "amphibian, a dirigible, a gyrocopter ....an airplane". A ship, really, trying to judge the size of the thing by the position of the portholes/windows--the thing was big, and the "single wing, rotating disk-shaped affair filled with gas or hot air" was even bigger. We read here that the disk was "turned by a gasoline engine" which was located in the center of the ship, leaving still plenty of room for "quarters" for the crew and passengers, making for what the inventor thought was an easy ascent and then, using the lifting device as a parachute, and then having a parachute-y descent, soft and simple.
Its hard to judge the size of the machine, but it looks like there are 40-50 portholes or windows running the length of the ship, and so I'd guess that the fuselage of the craft was 150 feet long, which was about half of its overall length, making it about 300 feet overall. The disk then could be 150-200 feet in diameter, giving it an area of close to one acre. Big.
And so:
I'm not clear why the wing has to rotate, unless it's for gyroscopic stabilisation. There'd be a very large gyroscope precession forces when you tried to climb or descend (akin to the turning problems you got with WW1 rotary-engined planes). And there appears to be no anti-torque mechanism to counter the fuselage's tendency to rotate in the opposite direction from the wing.
Posted by: Ray Girvan | 30 April 2012 at 06:28 AM