SUMMARY OF WORK AT NAVAL AIRCRAFT FACTORY The annual report of the Chief of the Bureau of Construction and Repair, for the fiscal year 1920, states with regard to the Naval Aircraft Factory: "Experimental and research work along various lines has continued at a somewhat limited pace during the year, due to curtailment of appropriations and consequent reduction in personnel." During the year, four more flying boats of the N.C. type, which crossed the Atlantic, were built, and two more are under construction. The Bureau also undertook the development of a design for a seaplane larger than any in existence, a 60,000 pound flying boat. The design embodies several new features, including metal wing structures and a unique power plant of nine Liberty engines in three groups, each group being geared to a single propeller. During the year work progressed on the construction of a 1,940,000 cubic foot rigid airship similar to the German L.-49 class. A series of F.-5 boats drawn from store has been altered in an effort to determine possible improvements as follows: one boat fitted with folding wings, one with tandem Liberty engines, one with streamline wire, one with new type of bottom, one with fireproof wings, and one with a well for a mapping camera. AERONAUTICAL ACTIVITIES, BUREAU OF ENGINEERING In an endeavor to provide a suitable power plant for aircraft of apparently ever-increasing size, the bureau has taken up the question of multi-engined power plants driving a single propeller with a view to using either a single unit of this type in large aircraft, or a number of such units. During the year, such units were under development and construction, the types developed including those suitable for installation in both seaplanes and airplanes and types for installation in rigid or non-rigid airships. Aviation may very shortly expect to have available air-cooled engines of domestic manufacture equal in performance to the better types of water-cooled engines now in use. There have been interesting developments in composition, metal and variable pitch propellers. The development in radio has been mainly along the following lines: lightening of apparatus, improvement in receiving facilities, elimination of confusing noises, improvement of inter-communication. MARINE CORPS MARINE CORPS OFFICERS ON ACTIVE DUTY AS QUALIFIED MAJORS. NAVAL AVIATORS Alfred A. Cunningham. Thomas C. Turner. Francis T. Evans. Robert J. Archibald. Thomas R. Shearer. Horace D. Palmer. Jacob F. Plachta. Eugene Rovegno. Russell L. Stephens. Leo Sullivan. Harold H. Titus. Sherman H. Zea. AVIATION STATIONS OF MARINE CORPS A flying field similar to the one at Quantico is being established at San Diego, California. Enlisted personnel for Aviation are trained at Aviation Mechanics School, Great Lakes, Ill. On account of the flying field at Quantico not being completed some officers have been sent in the past to the U. S. Air Service Field at Arcadia, Fla., for advanced training. OFFICERS AND ENLISTED MEN IN MARINE CORPS As of November 1, 1920, there were 1,034 officers and men in Marine Corps Aviation, of which 58 were officers, 4 warrant officers and 972 enlisted men. There are 285 Marine officers qualified as naval aviators. AERONAUTICAL BOARD The object of this Board is to prevent duplication, and to secure coordination in Aviation matters of the Army and the Navy, to draw plans for new projects, for the construction of aircraft, for experimental stations, for coastal air stations, for stations to be used jointly by the Army and the Navy, or for extensive additions thereto. The membership of the Aeronautical Board is as follows: Major General Chas. T. Menoher, Captain Thomas T. Craven, U. S. N. U. S. A., Chairman. Lt. Col. J. E. Fechet, A. S. Commander J. C. Hunsaker, U. S. N. OPERATIONS, LIGHTER-THAN-AIR Major P. E. Van Nostrand, A. S. DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION, HEAVIER-THAN-AIR Maj. Henry W. Harms, A. S. Lieut. Comm. Z. Lansdowne, U. S. N Comm. H. C. Richardson, U. S. N. The name of the Board, which had formerly been the Joint Army and Navy Board on Aeronautics, was changed by the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy on December 29, 1919, to “The Aeronautical Board." Shortly after this the Joint Technical Board on Aircraft Except Zeppelins was dissolved and its functions taken over by the Aeronautical Board. Ten officers, five from the Army and five from the Navy, were then assigned to the Aeronautical Board as a Technical Committee in connection with the drawing up of projects for the development of aeronautics and air stations. The addition of the Technical Committee brought the number of officers assigned to the Board to a total of nineteen. During the past year the Aeronautical Board has considered and made recommendations upon many questions concerning the aeronautical work of the Army and Navy dealing with policy, production, purchase and sale of material, selection and construction of aeronautical sites and bases, training, operations, and the general functions of aircraft, with a view to securing coordination and preventing duplication of activities wherever possible. Among the important recommendations recently made by the Board is the general policy relating to the use of Government landing fields and facilities by civil and commercial aircraft, which provides for the use of landing fields for emergency purposes, but does not permit of the use of such a field as a base for the operation of commercial aircraft. THE HELIUM BOARD The Helium Board (Army and Navy) in connection with the Bureau of Mines has continued its development of and experiments with helium gas, for use in future lighter-than-air operations by the Army and Navy Air Services. Colonel C. DeF. Chandler, A. S., U. S. A., and Commander A. K. Atkins, U. S. N., constituted the membership of the Helium Board in 1920. 1 See also Bureau of Mines report in Appendix. THE AIR MAIL PERSONNEL Otto Praeger, Second Assistant Postmaster General. Major L. B. Lent, Supt. Charles I. Stanton, Supt. of Engineering. P. W. Smith, J. E. Whitbeck, of Flying Operations. D. B. Colyer, pilots, etc. J. C. Edgerton, radio. Charles Fay, inspection. G. L. Conner, Chief Clerk. E. W. Majors, Chicago Repair Depot. C. A. Parker, Bustleton E. J. Scanlon, Newark Carl F. Egge, Supt. of Mail Transportation. DIVISION SUPERINTENDENTS Hazelhurst Field, Supt. New York-Cleveland-Wash. Division...... Hempstead, L. I., N. Y. Air Mail Field, Reno, Nev. |