Gliders (SAIL-PLANES are motorless)

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

OR SAIL-PLANES, are motorless aeroplanes built for the purpose of gliding through the air by means of atmospheric resistance and aircurrents. What is called the gliding efficiency of a machine is expressed by the ratio of height of start to length flight in motionless air. The higher the start, the better chance there will be that the glider may catch some sustaining air-current before reaching the ground. Upward air-currents are of course the main factor in keeping up the glider for any length of time, and the bird-sense of the aviator in finding and making use of these currents is here of even greater importance than in the motor-driven plane. The glider is started from the ground or water-surface by the same means as a kite, being pushed or pulled against atmospheric resistance. It may also soar freely against the wind, as a ship may sail against the wind. Gliding machines are not a recent invention. Probably the first one was that designed by Leonardo da Vinci in the fifteenth century. Other efforts have been made and continue to be made to imitate the soaring devices of birds. The recent successful German gliders, for instance, resembled the sea-gull in general features, while the Glenn Curtis plan is to emulate the albatross. Otto Lilienthal (d. 1886) was the first to treat gliding as an actual science. In America, the Wright brothers took up the work and experimented extensively with motorless gliders before attempting to build their first power plane. In 1911, Orville Wright succeeded in remaining in the air ten minutes and one second. Since the World War the Germans have turned to gliding and in recent contests held in that country established records far exceeding any earlier ones. Hentzen on August 25, 1922 remained in the air for 3 hours and 10 minutes. A. H. G. Fokker of Holland, carrying one passenger, succeeded in remaining up for 13 minutes. Enthusiasts look forward to the perfecting of the glider as a new and distinct means of aerial navigation, but other observers attribute the successes in some degree to favorable air-currents of the locality selected for the trials. Improvements in gliding would in any case make it possible to use lower power engines in airplanes with equal efficiency and reliability. GREAT BRITAIN (General Election of 1922). The Coalition government of Prime Minister Lloyd George came to an end October 19, 1922, following a meeting of the Unionist members of Parliament at which they voted to withdraw from its support. A series of more or less futile efforts to come to an agreement with the other Entente governments, in particular with France, on the question of German reparations, interallied debts, and the Near Eastern Question, had filled the years 1921 and 1922, the immediate cause of the fall of the government being the failure of the Near Eastern policy as exemplified in the sudden triumph of the Turks in Asia Minor and the threat of a new war to uphold the British position. The Unionist vote to withdraw from the Coalition led to the immediate resignation of Lloyd George and the formation of a new Cabinet by A. Bonar Law, the Conservative leader. A general election followed in November and resulted in a sweeping Conservative victory, with the Labor Party taking second place. The Liberals were divided between those supporting Lloyd George and those supporting former Prime Minister Asquith. The Labor Party won 140 seats, while the Conservatives won 345. The real strength of the Labor Party, however, was shown Farty, however, by the figures for the popular vote, a total of over 4,300,000 votes being cast for Labor candidates, in comparison with 5,800,000 votes for Conservative candidates, 2,700,000 for Asquith Liberals, and 1,500,000 for the Lloyd George Liberals. The Labor leader, Ramsay Macdonald, became the official opposition in Parliament. GREECE (Revolution of 1922). The war waged by by Greece in Asia Minor to keep possession of Smyrna and other territories there which had been awarded her by the Treaty of Sèvres ended disastrously in August and September, 1922, when the Greek forces, mutinous and weary of the war, suddenly collapsed under a new attack of the Kemalist Turks. Smyrna itself abandoned on September 8th, and was occupied by the victors the following day. Thousands of the Greek inhabitants of Asia Minor fled from their homes and took refuge wherever possible, but the Greek men and boys of fighting age were held by the Turks and sent into the interior. The first result of the military disaster was a revolutionary movement in the army and navy, leading to the abdication of King Constantine, September 27th. A Revolutionary Committee took charge of the government with the primary purpose of attempting to save Thrace. But this province also, which had been held by Greece under the Sèvres Treaty, had to be yielded to the Turks by the terms of an armistice signed at Mudania, October 10th. The Revolutionary Committee, having formed a ministry and been recognized by the new king, George II, immediately brought to trial five former premiers and cabinet ministers on the charge of betraying the interests of Greece. They were tried by court-martial, convicted, and executed November 28, 1922, the proceedings evoking world-wide condemnation. The British minister withdrew from Athens and the whole diplomatic corps protested in the name of humanity. The first revolutionary premier himself resigned his post in the midst of the trials and former Premier Zaimis, whose consent had been won to resume the leadership of the government, now declined to work under military tutelage. Unable to induce any of the political leaders of Greece to head the government, Colonel Gonatas of the HAITI. ( See UNITED STATES: FOREIGN AFFAIRS, 1922-23.)