Imperial Valley Press

STATIC ELECTRICITY ADVANCED
AS CAUSE OF PLANE CRASHES

CHICAGO, Oct. 19. (U.P.)—Tremendous voltages of static electricity, stored in airliners as they drive through snow and dust, may cause them to crash. John B. Leake, 48, Chicago aeronautics instructor, suggested today.

Leake said electrical discharges may ionize air in the motor, reconvert gasoline vapor into liquid in the cylinders, and either stop the motor entirely or reduce its power seriously.

Leake, former radio electricity instructor in the U. S. army signal corps, said this trouble might be corrected by stringing lead-off wires of wire brushes on forward wing tips, to permit gradual discharge of the static electricity into the air.

"Airplanes flying at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour through negatively charged particles—rain, snow or dust—pick up tremendous loads of static electricity perhaps running as high as 300,000 volts," Leake said.

"The streamlined wings and fuselage prevent leakage of the charge until the ship nears the ground or one other positively charged object."

In airplanes approaching mountains, such as several of those which have crashed recently in the west, the static charge would be drawn into the nose of the ship, Leake said.

When the electricity is discharged from the nose of the ship, the resulting ionized air is in the path of the motor intake, and may be sucked into the motors.