High Flying

The power of an airplane engine falls off in the rarefied atmosphere of great heights; its speed and climbing capacity decrease correspondingly. But if, on the contrary, the power is maintained, the airplane may develop extraordinary speed, because it then has less density of air to impede its progress. Accordingly, many inventors have sought maintenance of power at altitude by using centrifugal air compressors to keep the pressure and density of the air in the engine at a constant value. Such compressors have introduced great complexity and additional weight into the power plant. Paul Painleve, momentarily abandoning his Presidential Chair in the Chamber of Deputies to return to his old haunts at the Academy of Sciences, announces an invention by Louis Damblanc, builder of the Damblanc helicopter, which is to achieve the same end with far less complication. The cables tell us little except that the device is of insignificant volume, weighs only 16 pounds and is adapted to the interior of the engine. A plausible guess is that the device increases the air (oxygen) drawn into the cylinder.