JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

D.G. Lloyds certainly had an interesting–if not unique–vision of non-stop or uninterrupted cross-country aerial service, writing about Non-Stop Landing of the Future (Illustrated World, May 1920.)  And for Lloyds the future was soon, or tomorrow, because, frankly, the technology was there, if not the will.  Or the inclination.  Or the presence of a logic for creating such a service.

It seems to me that after floating along for days at 75 mph (or thereabouts?) that, after finally getting across the country, a traveler might want to simply disembark.  But this behemoth envisioned by Lloyds wouldn’t have to actually stop–it was outfitted, designed to release/accept passengers while in flight.  Now of course take-offs and landings are the most dangerous parts of flying, and perhaps this is what Lloyds was trying to replace.  But to me it looks like he replaced one significant danger with, well, several other significant dangers. 

Look:  it just seems to me that any time you have a giant airplane synchronizing flying with an enormous dirigible to transfer exceptionally heavy cargo at an altitude of one mile that there is some substantial room for pilot(s) error.(s) and other freak whatevers.  Also, the issue of using dozens of men with shepherd hooks to grab a multi-ton object suspended from a moving platform to another moving platform seems to me, well problematic.  But it does make for a pretty picture.