The Large Aeroplane and Its Limitations

Extract

The question of whether it is possible to construct very large aeroplanes equal or superior in efficiency to the smaller aeroplanes already in existence is a subject that must be occupying the minds of people connected with aeronautics.

The subject has been considered by various aeronautical engineers and scientists in the pages of the ROYAL AËRONAUTICAL JOURNAL and elsewhere.

A few of the statements of conclusions arrived at are quoted from the AËRONAUTICAL JOURNAL of 1917 in an appendix.

In England there is no doubt that the late Colonel Cody was the pioneer of the large aeroplane, as although his plane would be considered to be of moderate dimensions to-day, yet it was large in relation to its contemporaries.