"It took us five hours to get home—there was an 80-mile wind against us, All those hours the wireless operator made no moan or complaint, although he was suffering from the intense cold as well as from his burns. He asked for nothing in the way of treatment and did not even admit he was suffering.
"When we told him we would lard at the nearest aerodrome he begged that we should go the extra 100 miles so that we could all get back to our friends and let them see that we were safe.
"It was a crew to be proud of. Not one of them showed even the slightest trace of fear or doubt as to our ability to get through. That the aircraft was able to cover the distance is the finest tribute possible to the designers, manufacturers, and workmen. The whole of the skin and ribs had been blown off one side of the fuselage, and on the other side all the rivets were missing."
Some interest, attached 'o a recent report from Washington that a steam-power unit for aircraft will probably be submitted to the United States Army authorities in the near future, says the Air Correspondent of the chester Guardian." The engine, it is stated, turbine developing 3.000 h.p., and is noiseless.
Engineers in the United States and also in Germany have made several attempts to evolve a steam engine for aeroplanes. Some years ago two brothers named Besler constructed a small machine powered with a two-cylinder compound engine of 150 h.p. which was supplied with steam from a Dobel generator. Several flights were made at Oakland aerodrome, California, with this aircraft, and so silent was the running of the engine that the pilot was able to converse with people on the ground from a height of 200 feet.
Six years ago another American submitted a steamxiriven aeroplane design to the United States Army Air Corps. The layout consisted of central boiler installed in the fuselage with two 18 by 36 inch turbines arranged in the wings, each developing 1500 lip. The design was not accepted.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.