Living Aloft, 1920

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.

And this:

Comments

[Ray Girvan]

"seems to me, well problematic"

Not the least problem being what'll happen to the centre of mass if you put a multi-ton load *on top* of a balloon.

They could do a mid-air transfer if they had a well down through the lower dirigible - in effect, it would have a toroidal gasbag - and the upper one lowered the whole payload down through it to the bottom of the receiving dirigible before grabbing it.

[Jeff Donlan]

I've looked at this several times and developed a fondness for the people in the picture, all those people waving hooks like a mob ready to go after Frankenstein. They are stuck in a time warp, being asked to do what they all probably know is folly. Each of them has had a horse lean against him; they must have a gut feeling for the relative power of the massive aircraft involved. I wonder if D.G. Lloyds imagined such an enormous plane slowing to 75 mph in flight like that (assuming the blimp speed mentioned). Or maybe there are positionable propellers, something like a Harrier jet. Or is this just a fly-by making a quick drop of that pod with the three guys on it? I like the picture. Makes me think of modern China.