Anti Spin

Man (in the person of Handley F. Page*) last week announced that he had cut another step in the upward climb of the invisible precipices of the air. It is a niche which a slipping airplane can seize, grip firmly, and thus check its helpless spinning fall.

At Cricklewood Airdrome (near London) a plane slid lazily along the air, slower, stalling; the lazy tail began to drop. Such weary antics precede the tail spin, horrible whirl to death of many an aviator, among the heaviest hazards of aviation. Spectators thrilled. But the plane above Cricklewood did not spin. Instead it hung in the air under perfect lateral control, nosed down a trifle, regained flying speed.

Along the front of the main wing and in front of the rear ailerons, spectators found a tiny curved plane when the machine landed. Automatically extending itself by air pressure on the wing, the enlarged surface grips the air when the plane stalls; props it; forbids the wing dip which precedes the spin.

Never before in aviation has the pilot kept control of his machine while the machine stalled. U. S. aviators read the report intently; agreed the device seemed practicable; eagerly awaited models for tests in the U. S.

With a Luddington plane equipped somewhat as was Handley Page's, Clarence Chamberlin at Teterboro, last week kept an even keel when flying at only 15 miles a hour. He could take off with a short run of 60 feet; could land with only a 75-ft. roll.

*Managing director of Handley Page Ltd., British airplane firm. He described his invention as "the biggest thing in aviation since the patents of the Wright Brothers."