ENGLISH (LOWER FIGURE) AND AMERICAN DIRIGIBLE WAR BALLOONS AND A WRIGHT AEROPLANE.The above figures are introduced on one page for the purpose of comparison and contrast. The American balloon is the Baldwin airship. The essential clumsiness of a lighter-than-air craft, as contrasted with the relative gracefulness and manageableness of the aeroplane, is strikingly suggested by this illustration.
ENGLISH (LOWER FIGURE) AND AMERICAN DIRIGIBLE WAR BALLOONS AND A WRIGHT AEROPLANE.The above figures are introduced on one page for the purpose of comparison and contrast. The American balloon is the Baldwin airship. The essential clumsiness of a lighter-than-air craft, as contrasted with the relative gracefulness and manageableness of the aeroplane, is strikingly suggested by this illustration.
ENGLISH (LOWER FIGURE) AND AMERICAN DIRIGIBLE WAR BALLOONS AND A WRIGHT AEROPLANE.
The above figures are introduced on one page for the purpose of comparison and contrast. The American balloon is the Baldwin airship. The essential clumsiness of a lighter-than-air craft, as contrasted with the relative gracefulness and manageableness of the aeroplane, is strikingly suggested by this illustration.
Since the successful performance of Santos-Dumont in rounding the Eiffel Tower many other dirigible balloons have been constructed, not only in America and in Europe by various inventors, but by the Brazilian aeronaut himself. The most remarkable of these is theZeppelin II, the fifth creation of the indomitable Count Zeppelin. In principle and general lines of construction this balloon closely resembles the one described a few pages back. Its best performance, however, is more remarkable. Starting from Lake Constance on the night of May 29th, 1909, and sailing almost directly northward regardless of air currents, the balloon reached Bitterfield, a few miles beyond Leipzig, four hundred and sixty-five miles from the starting-point, the following evening. Turning back at this point, without alighting, it had almost completed its return trip, when on coming to the ground for a supply of fuel it was injured by collision with the branches of a tree. The injury sustained, while delaying and marring the voyage, did not prevent the balloon from completingits eight-hundred-and-fifty mile voyage, and establishing a new record for dirigibles.
This and sundry other flights amply demonstrated the dirigibility and relative safety of the balloon under varying atmospheric conditions. But the difficulties that attend the management of such a craft when not high in air were again vividly illustrated when, in April, 1910, the Zeppelin II., was totally wrecked while at anchor by the force of a gale which it might easily have outridden had it been beyond the reach of terrestrial obstacles.
ALTHOUGHthe dirigible balloon in the hands of Santos-Dumont gained a decisive victory over all mechanical methods of flight theretofore discovered, even the inventor himself considered it rather as a means to an end, than the end itself. That end, it would seem, must be a flying-machine, many times heavier than the atmosphere, but able by mechanical means to lift and propel itself through the air. The natural representative of this kind of flying-machine, the bird, is something like a thousand times as heavy as the air which its bulk displaces. The balloon, on the other hand, with its equipments and occupants, must necessarily be lighter than air; and as the ordinary gas used for inflating is only about seven times lighter than the atmosphere, it can be readily understood that for a balloon to acquire any great amount of lifting power it must be of enormous proportions. To attempt to force this great, fragile bulk of light material through the atmosphere at any great rate of speed is obviously impossible on account of the resistance offered by its surfaces. On the other hand, any such structure strong enough to resist the enormous pressure at high speed would be too heavy to float.
THE AEROPLANE OF M. SANTOS DUMONT.M. Santos Dumont's chief fame as an aviator is based on his flights with a dirigible balloon. He has experimented extensively, however, with the heavier-than-air type of machine, though none of his flights with this apparatus has been record-breaking.
THE AEROPLANE OF M. SANTOS DUMONT.M. Santos Dumont's chief fame as an aviator is based on his flights with a dirigible balloon. He has experimented extensively, however, with the heavier-than-air type of machine, though none of his flights with this apparatus has been record-breaking.
THE AEROPLANE OF M. SANTOS DUMONT.
M. Santos Dumont's chief fame as an aviator is based on his flights with a dirigible balloon. He has experimented extensively, however, with the heavier-than-air type of machine, though none of his flights with this apparatus has been record-breaking.
These facts are so patent that it is but natural toinquire how the balloonists could ever have expected to accomplish flight at more than a nominal rate of speed; and, on the other hand, it might be asked, naturally enough, how the aviators expected to fly with aeroplane machines at least a thousand times heavier than the air. In reply, the aviators could point to birds and bats as examples of how the apparently impossible is easily accomplished in nature; while the balloonists could simply point to their accomplished flights as practical demonstrations. The aviators could point to no past records of accomplishments, but nevertheless they had good ground for the faith that was in them, and as we shall see were later to justify their theories by practical demonstrations.
Everybody is aware that there is an enormous difference in the lifting power of still air and air in motion, and that this power is dependent upon velocity. The difference between the puff of wind that barely lifts a thin sheet of paper from the table, and the tornado that uproots trees and wrecks stone buildings, is one of velocity. Obviously, then, moving air is quite a different substance from still air when it comes to dealing with aeronautics.
One of the most familiar examples of the lifting power of moving air is that of the kite. An ordinary kite is many times heavier than the air and has no more tendency to rise in the air than a corresponding weight of lead under ordinary conditions. Yet this same kite, if held by a string with its surfaces inclined to the wind at a certain angle, will be lifted with a force proportionate to the velocity of the wind and the size ofthe surfaces. On a windy day the kite-flyer holding the string and standing still will have his kite pushed upward into the air by the current rushing beneath its surface. On a still day he may accomplish the same thing by running forward with the kite-string, thus causing the surface of the kite to "slide over" the opposing atmosphere. In short, it makes no difference whether the air or kite is moving, so long as the effect of the current rushing against the lower surface is produced. Obviously, then, if in place of the kite-flyer holding the string and running at a certain speed, some kind of a motor could be attached to the kite that would push it forward at a rate of speed corresponding to the speed of the runner, the kite would rise—in short, would be converted into a flying-machine.
Looked at in another way, the action of the air in sustaining a body in motion in the air has been compared by Professor Langley to the sustaining power of thin ice, which does not break under the weight of a swiftly gliding skater, although it would sustain only a small fraction of his weight if he were stationary. Supposing, for example, the skater were to stand upon a cake of ice a foot square for a single second; he would sink, let us say, to his waist in the water. On a cake having twice the surface area, or two square feet, he would sink only to his knees; while if the area of the cake is multiplied ten times the original size, he would scarcely wet his feet in the period of a second. Now supposing the cake to be cut into ten cakes of one square foot each, placed together in a line so that the skater could glide over the entire ten feet in length inone second. It is evident that he would thus distribute his weight over the same amount of ice as if the cakes were fastened together in a solid piece.
"So it is with the air," says Professor Langley. "Even the viewless air possesses inertia; it cannot be pushed aside without some effort; and while the portion which is directly under the air-ship would not keep it from falling several yards in the first second, if the ship goes forward so that it runs or treads on thousands of such portions in that time, it will sink in proportionately less degree; sink, perhaps only through a fraction of an inch."
It is evident, therefore, that if, at a given speed, the horizontal wings of an air-ship would keep it from falling more than a fraction of an inch in a second, by increasing the speed sufficiently and giving the wings an upward inclination, the air-ship instead of falling might actually rise. And this, as we shall see presently, is just what the flying-machines of Sir Hiram Maxim and Professor Langley and of the Wright brothers and their imitators did do.
It was while making an important series of experiments with aeroplanes that Professor Langley made the discovery which has since been known as "Langley's Law." In effect this law is that while it takes a certain strain to sustain a properly disposed weight while stationary in the air, to advance the weight rapidly takeseven less strainthan when the weight is stationary.Thus, contrary to opinions held until recently, and contrary to the rules for land vehicles and ships, the strain of resistance of an aeroplane will diminish instead of increasing with the increase of speed. Professor Langley proved this remarkable fact with a most simple but ingenious device. It consisted of an immense "whirling table," driven by an engine, so arranged that the end of a revolving arm could be made to travel at any speed up to seventy miles an hour. At the end of this arm, surfaces disposed like wings were placed, and whirled through the two hundred feet circumference, until they were supported like kites by the resistance of the air.
A certain strain was, of course, necessary to support one of these winglike structures when stationary in the air, but, curiously enough, less strain was required when it was advanced rapidly. Thus a brass plate of proper shape weighing one pound was suspended from a pull-out spring scale, the arm of which was drawn out until it reached the one-pound mark. When the whirling table was rotated with increasing velocity the arm indicated less and less strain, finally indicating only an ounce when the speed of a flying bird was reached. "The brass plate seemed to float on the air," says Professor Langley, "and not only this, but taking into consideration both the strain and the velocity, it was found that absolutely less power was spent to make the plate move fast than slow, a result which seemed very extraordinary, since in all methods of land and water transport a high speed costs much more power than a slow one for the same distance."
These experiments, which destroyed the calculations of Newton, long held to be correct, showed that mechanical flight was at least theoretically possible, indicating as it did that a weight of two hundred pounds could be moved through the air at express-train speed with the expenditure of only one horse-power of energy. Since engines could be constructed weighing less than twenty pounds to the horse-power, theoretically such an engine should support ten times its own weight in horizontal flight in an absolute calm. As a matter of fact there is no such thing as an absolute calm in nature, air-currents being constantly stirring even on the calmest day, and this introduces another element in attaining aerial flight that is an all-important one. Indeed it has long been recognized that the mechanical power for flight is not the only requisite for flying—there is, besides, the art of handling that power.
Those who have watched soaring birds sail for hours on rigidly extended wings will remember that while there is no flying movement, there are certain shifts of the rigid body, either to offset some unexpected gust of wind, or to produce movement in a desired direction. There is an art of balancing here that has become instinctive in the bird by long practice which could not be hoped for in the same degree in a mechanical device, and which man could hope to acquire only by practice. But in the nature of the case man has little chance to learn this art of balancing inthe air, and it is for this reason that the many members of the balloonist school advocate the inflated bag in place of the aeroplane. The argument advanced by them is that since man has no chance naturally to acquire familiarity with balancing in the air, the simplest and best way for him to acquire it is by making balloon ascensions. When he has acquired sufficient skill he can gradually reduce the lifting part of his flying-machine, or gas-bag, gradually increasing the aeroplane or other means of propulsion and lifting, until the balloon part of his device can be dispensed with entirely.
In short, this argument of the balloon advocates is comparable to two schools of swimming-teachers, one of whom advocates the use of sustaining floats until the knack of swimming is acquired, the other depending upon the use only of muscular movements and quickly acquired skill. In this comparison the aviators have all the best of the argument; for it is a common observation that persons who attempt to learn to swim by the use of floats of any kind acquire that art slowly if at all; while those who plunge in boldly, although they run more risks, quickly learn the art that seems ridiculously easy when once acquired.
LEARNING HOW TO FLY.This gliding apparatus is not unlike that with which M. Chanute and other early experimenters tested the qualities of air currents. The apparatus here shown is being drawn by an automobile, so that its action is virtually that of a kite. This picture was taken at Morris Park, New York, in 1909. The descent was made too abruptly and the aviator was seriously injured.
LEARNING HOW TO FLY.This gliding apparatus is not unlike that with which M. Chanute and other early experimenters tested the qualities of air currents. The apparatus here shown is being drawn by an automobile, so that its action is virtually that of a kite. This picture was taken at Morris Park, New York, in 1909. The descent was made too abruptly and the aviator was seriously injured.
LEARNING HOW TO FLY.
This gliding apparatus is not unlike that with which M. Chanute and other early experimenters tested the qualities of air currents. The apparatus here shown is being drawn by an automobile, so that its action is virtually that of a kite. This picture was taken at Morris Park, New York, in 1909. The descent was made too abruptly and the aviator was seriously injured.
The great German scientist, Helmholtz, after years of careful study, finally reached the conclusion that man would never be able to fly by his own power alone. But, as we have seen, Professor Langley had shown that in these mysterious questions pertaining to flight even a Newton could be wrong; and why not Helmholtz? Otto Lilienthal, also a German, thought that hisfellow-countrymanwaswrong. For years he had made a study of the flight of birds, and his studies had led him to the same conclusions that have usually been reached by every student of the subject, both before and since—that soaring flight, without any flapping movement, is possible under certain conditions; that curved surfaces can acquire a horizontal motion by the action of the wind alone, "when their curvature bears a certain relation to their superficies"—in short, a relation represented exactly by the wings of birds.
It was not supposed by Lilienthal, or by any of the members of the school of aviators, that simply by making a device that reproduced the proportions and shape of a bird any person might mount and fly. But it was believed that, given such a device, a man might learn to fly with practice. Lilienthal, therefore, constructed a flying-machine with correctly curved surfaces made of linen stretched over a light wooden frame, the total area being about fourteen square yards, and the whole machine weighing only about forty pounds. In the center was an aperture where the operator was stationed, holding the frame in position by his arms. Obviously, as no flapping motion in imitation of a bird's wings was possible, some other means of giving the necessary impetus for horizontal flight was necessary, and here again the study of birds suggested a method.
It is a well-known fact that certain soaring birds cannot leave the ground when once they have alighted, except by an initial run to acquire the necessary speed; and every goose hunter is familiar with the manner in which these birds run along the surface of water, flapping theirwings and skimming along some distance before they acquire sufficient velocity to mount into the air. A description of a similar action of an eagle in leaving the earth, written by a careful observer a few years ago, has become classic. This huntsman had come upon an eagle which had alighted upon the sandy banks of the Nile, and had fired at it, thus stimulating the bird to its utmost energy in getting into flight. Yet on examining the foot-marks made in the sand it was found that, even under these circumstances, the bird had been obliged to run "full twenty yards before he could raise himself from the earth. The marks of his claws were traceable on the sandy soil," says the writer, "as, at first with firm and decided digs, he found his way, but as he lightened his body and increased his speed with the aid of his wings, the imprints of his talons gradually merged into long scratches."
It is evident that if such a master of the art of flying as an eagle must thus acquire initial velocity before flight is possible, a human novice must do considerably more. The method that would naturally suggest itself would be that of running down the slope of a hillside, and Lilienthal adopted this method, beginning his flights by running down the gentle slope of a hill against the wind, until the requisite momentum was acquired. This was, indeed, a reversion to some of the oldest types of flying-machines, but with this difference—that it was the result of scientific study. The results attained proved that the theory was not visionary—that scientists had not dreamed and studied in vain. For, as little by little the experimenter gainedexperience, he was able to soar farther and farther in his birdlike machine, in one flight sailing a distance of twelve hundred feet. Under certain favorable wind conditions he could sail from a hilltop without the initial run, and at times he actually rose in the air to a point higher than that from which he started.
As was to be expected in the very nature of the case, Lilienthal found that part of the secret of success lay in maintaining his equilibrium and in acquiring the faculty of doing this instinctively, as a bird does. But he found, like the person learning to ride a bicycle, that this was developed by repeated efforts. The action of the machine itself was carefully studied, and various changes were made in his apparatus from time to time as experience suggested them. Among other things, feather-like sails, worked by a small motor, were attached to the edge of the wings; and two smaller frames placed one above the other were tried in place of one large frame. And still the operator continued to make successful flights in all kinds of winds, sometimes narrowly escaping disaster, but for three years always coming to the ground safely. His confidence increased day by day, and as his remarkable performances multiplied it seemed as if it would only be a matter of time until he would be able to imitate the soaring bird and sail almost as he pleased.
In writing of his experiences when, as it sometimes happened, he found himself practically motionless in the air at a point higher than that from which he started, he says: "I feel very certain that if I leaned a little to one side, and so described a circle, and furtherpartook of the motion of the lifting air around me, I should sustain my position. The wind itself tends to direct this motion; but then it must be remembered that my chief object in the air is to overcome the tendency of turning to the right or left, because I know that behind or under me lies the hill from which I started, and with which I would come in rough contact if I allowed myself to attempt this circle-sailing. I have, however, made up my mind, by means of either stronger wind or by flapping the wings, to get higher up and farther away from the hills, so that sailing round in circles, I can follow the strong, uplifting current, and have sufficient air-space under and around me to complete with safety a circle, and lastly to come up against the wind again to land."
Before he was ready to make this attempt, however, Lilienthal was killed by a fall caused by a treacherous gust of wind which tilted his machine beyond his control and hurled him to the ground.
Again the expectant world of aerial navigators was thrown into despondency by the happening of the long expected—expected, and yet not expected; for Lilienthal had made so many daring flights under so many trying conditions, always managing to alight safely, that a feeling of confidence had succeeded that of distrust. It was almost like a bolt from a clear sky, therefore, when the news was flashed around the world that Lilienthal was no more. But science has never yet been daunted by the fear of death. Like a well-formed battle-line in which the place of the fallen is always quickly filled, there is always a warrior-scientist readyto sacrifice anything for the cause. And so, although Lilienthal was gone, the work he had carried so far toward success was continued by others, Chanute and Hering, the American "soaring men," and later eclipsed by the Wright brothers, who were finally to solve the problem.
At the same time that Lilienthal was making his initial experiments, another champion of the same school of aviators was achieving equally successful results along somewhat different, and yet on the whole, similar lines. Sir Hiram Maxim, the inventor of so many destructive types of guns, was devoting much time and energy to the construction of a flying-machine. His apparatus was of the aeroplane type, but unlike that of Lilienthal, Chanute, or Hering, was to be propelled by steam-driven screw-propellers. Nor was the apparatus he proposed to make a diminutive affair weighing a few pounds and capable of lifting only the weight of a man. His huge machine weighed in the neighborhood of four tons and carried a steam-engine that developed some three hundred and sixty horse-power in the screws. It was two hundred feet in width, and mounted on a car track, along which it was to be run to acquire the necessary initial velocity before mounting into the air.
On July 31, 1894, this huge machine started on a trial spin, carrying a crew of three persons, besides fuel and water for the boilers. When a speed of thirty-sixmiles an hour on the track had been acquired, the apparatus lifted itself in the air, and sailed for some distance, a maximum flight of over three hundred feet finally being made. This experiment demonstrated several important things—in fact, solved "three out of five divisions of the problem of flight," as Lord Kelvin declared. It demonstrated that a flying-machine carrying its own propelling power could be made powerful and light enough to lift itself in the air; that an aeroplane will lift much more than a balloon of equal weight; and that a well-made screw-propeller will grip the air sufficiently to propel a machine at a high rate of speed.
Since the two remaining divisions of the five concerned in the problem of flight had been already solved by Lilienthal, it seemed that it only remained for some scientist to combine this complete knowledge in the proper way to produce a practical flying-machine—one that would fly through the air, and continue to fly until the power was exhausted. It was not a startling announcement to the scientific world, therefore, when about three years later the news was flashed that Prof. S. P. Langley had produced such an apparatus.
FLYING MACHINES OF THE MONOPLANE TYPE.Upper figure, the aeroplane of M. Robert Esnault-Pelterie. Middle figure, the aeroplane of M. Blériot. Lower figure, the Vuia aeroplane, a bat-like machine of freakish structure which had no large measure of success. A modification of the boat-like machine shown in the upper figure gained celebrity through its use by M. Latham in the first attempt (in July, 1909) to fly across the English Channel. M. Blériot's aeroplane as finally developed became a very successful flying machine. With its aid M. Blériot was first to accomplish the feat of flying across the English Channel (from Calais to Dover in about 23 minutes) on the morning of July 25th, 1909. These pictures are reproduced from the London Graphic of January 25th, 1908.
FLYING MACHINES OF THE MONOPLANE TYPE.Upper figure, the aeroplane of M. Robert Esnault-Pelterie. Middle figure, the aeroplane of M. Blériot. Lower figure, the Vuia aeroplane, a bat-like machine of freakish structure which had no large measure of success. A modification of the boat-like machine shown in the upper figure gained celebrity through its use by M. Latham in the first attempt (in July, 1909) to fly across the English Channel. M. Blériot's aeroplane as finally developed became a very successful flying machine. With its aid M. Blériot was first to accomplish the feat of flying across the English Channel (from Calais to Dover in about 23 minutes) on the morning of July 25th, 1909. These pictures are reproduced from the London Graphic of January 25th, 1908.
FLYING MACHINES OF THE MONOPLANE TYPE.
Upper figure, the aeroplane of M. Robert Esnault-Pelterie. Middle figure, the aeroplane of M. Blériot. Lower figure, the Vuia aeroplane, a bat-like machine of freakish structure which had no large measure of success. A modification of the boat-like machine shown in the upper figure gained celebrity through its use by M. Latham in the first attempt (in July, 1909) to fly across the English Channel. M. Blériot's aeroplane as finally developed became a very successful flying machine. With its aid M. Blériot was first to accomplish the feat of flying across the English Channel (from Calais to Dover in about 23 minutes) on the morning of July 25th, 1909. These pictures are reproduced from the London Graphic of January 25th, 1908.
Professor Langley described this really wonderful machine, which he called the "aerodrome," as follows:
"In the completed form there are two pairs of wings, each slightly curved, each attached to a long steel rod which supports them both, and from which depends the body of the machine, in which are the boilers, the engines, the machinery, and the propeller wheels, these latter being not in the position of an ocean steamer, butmore nearly amidships. They are made sometimes of wood, sometimes of steel and canvas, and are between three and four feet in diameter.
"The hull itself is formed of steel tubing; the front portion is closed by a sheathing of metal which hides from view the fire-grate and apparatus for heating, but allows us to see a little of the coils of the boiler and all of the relatively large smokestack in which it ends. There is a conical vessel in front which is simply an empty float, whose use is to keep the whole from sinking if it should fall in the water.
"This boiler supplies steam for an engine of between one and one-half horse-power, and, with its fire-grate, weighs a little over five pounds. This weight is exclusive of that of the engine, which weighs, with all its moving parts, but twenty-six ounces. Its duty is to drive the propeller wheels, which it does at rates varying from 800 to 1,200, or even more, turns a minute, the highest number being reached when the whole is speeding freely ahead.
"The rudder is of a shape very unlike that of a ship, for it is adapted both for vertical and horizontal steering. The width of the wings from tip to tip is between twelve and thirteen feet, and the length of the whole about sixteen feet. The weight is nearly thirty pounds, of which about one-fourth is contained in the machinery. The engine and boilers are constructed with an almost single eye to economy of weight, not of force, and are very wasteful of steam, of which they spend their own weight in five minutes. This steam might all be recondensed and the water re-used by proper condensingapparatus, but this cannot be easily introduced in so small a scale of construction. With it the time of flight might be hours instead of minutes, but without it the flight (of the present aerodrome) is limited to about five minutes, though in that time, as will be seen presently, it can go some miles; but owing to the danger of its leaving the surface of the water for that of the land, and wrecking itself on shore, the time of flight is limited designedly to less than two minutes."
When this flying-machine was put to the actual test its performance justified the most sanguine expectations; it actually flew as no other machine had ever flown before. A number of men of science watched this remarkable performance, among others Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, who reported it to the Institute of France. "Through the courtesy of Mr. S. P. Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, I have had on various occasions the pleasure of witnessing his experiments with aerodromes," wrote Dr. Bell, "and especially the remarkable success attained by him in his experiments made on the Potomac River on Wednesday, May 6th [which led me to urge him to make public some of these results].
"On the occasion referred to, the aerodrome, at a given signal, started from a platform about twenty feet above the water, and rose at first directly in the face of the wind, moving at all times with remarkable steadiness, and subsequently swinging around in large curves of, perhaps, a hundred yards in diameter, and continually ascending until its steam was exhausted, when at a lapse of about a minute and a half, and at a heightwhich I judged to be between eighty and one hundred feet in the air, the wheels ceased turning, and the machine, deprived of the aid of propellers, to my surprise did not fall, but settled down so softly and gently that it touched the water without the least shock, and was in fact immediately ready for another trial."
To most persons, even to the cautious and scientific inventor himself, the performance of this, and a second aerodrome which flew about three-quarters of a mile, seemed to show that the secret of aerial navigation was all but fathomed. "The world, indeed, will be supine," Langley wrote a short time after the success of his flying-machine, "if it does not realize that a new possibility has come to it, and that the great universal highway overhead is soon to be opened." What could be plainer? A machine of a certain construction, weighing some thirty pounds, and carrying at that some excess of weight, had been able to fly a relatively long distance. What easier than to construct a machine on precisely similar lines only ten, a hundred, a thousand times larger, until it would carry persons and cargo, and fly across an ocean or a continent?
Professor Langley himself, as was most fitting, undertook the construction of such a man-carrying air-ship. And it was during this undertaking that he made the momentous discovery that seemed to oppose a question mark to the possibility of flight by the aeroplane principle. This discovery was an "unyielding mathematical law that the weight of such a machine increases as the cube of its dimensions, whereas the wing surface increases as the square." In other words,as the machine is made larger, the size of the wings must be increased in an alarmingly disproportionate ratio. And the best that Professor Langley's man-carrying flying-machine could do, after the inventor had expended the limit of his ingenuity, was to dive into the waters of Chesapeake Bay, instead of soaring through the air as its prototype, the aerodrome, had done.
The plunge of Langley's aerodrome downward into the water instead of upward through space as had been confidently expected, carried with it the hopes of a great number of hitherto enthusiasts, who were now inclined to believe that the practical conquest of the air was almost as far beyond our reach as it had been beyond that of all preceding generations. Learned scientists were able to prove to their own satisfaction, by long columns of figures and elaborate mathematical calculations, that the air is unconquerable.
THE WRIGHT AEROPLANE.The aeroplane is here shown at rest, facing the right. This is the original type of bi-plane flying machines, of which all the others are only modifications. The starting-rail along which the machine glides while acquiring momentum is seen at the right; the rope connecting it with the starting derrick, at the left. The sledge-like runners, intended to break the shock of alighting, are plainly shown. The parallel planes of canvas at the right are horizontal rudders to direct the machine upward or downward. The vertical planes at the left are active rudders to direct the machine laterally. The two paddle-like structures at the back of the machine are the wooden propellers, actuated (at a rate of from 1000 to 1400 revolutions per minute) by an oil motor. With a machine of this type the Wright brothers, of Dayton, Ohio, were the first to demonstrate the feasibility of aerial navigation with a heavier-than-air machine; and world-famous flights were made by Mr. Orville Wright at Washington and by Mr. Wilbur Wright in France in the summer of 1908.
THE WRIGHT AEROPLANE.The aeroplane is here shown at rest, facing the right. This is the original type of bi-plane flying machines, of which all the others are only modifications. The starting-rail along which the machine glides while acquiring momentum is seen at the right; the rope connecting it with the starting derrick, at the left. The sledge-like runners, intended to break the shock of alighting, are plainly shown. The parallel planes of canvas at the right are horizontal rudders to direct the machine upward or downward. The vertical planes at the left are active rudders to direct the machine laterally. The two paddle-like structures at the back of the machine are the wooden propellers, actuated (at a rate of from 1000 to 1400 revolutions per minute) by an oil motor. With a machine of this type the Wright brothers, of Dayton, Ohio, were the first to demonstrate the feasibility of aerial navigation with a heavier-than-air machine; and world-famous flights were made by Mr. Orville Wright at Washington and by Mr. Wilbur Wright in France in the summer of 1908.
THE WRIGHT AEROPLANE.
The aeroplane is here shown at rest, facing the right. This is the original type of bi-plane flying machines, of which all the others are only modifications. The starting-rail along which the machine glides while acquiring momentum is seen at the right; the rope connecting it with the starting derrick, at the left. The sledge-like runners, intended to break the shock of alighting, are plainly shown. The parallel planes of canvas at the right are horizontal rudders to direct the machine upward or downward. The vertical planes at the left are active rudders to direct the machine laterally. The two paddle-like structures at the back of the machine are the wooden propellers, actuated (at a rate of from 1000 to 1400 revolutions per minute) by an oil motor. With a machine of this type the Wright brothers, of Dayton, Ohio, were the first to demonstrate the feasibility of aerial navigation with a heavier-than-air machine; and world-famous flights were made by Mr. Orville Wright at Washington and by Mr. Wilbur Wright in France in the summer of 1908.
But even as they labored and promulgated these conclusions, two unknown men in a little Ohio town, discarding all accepted theoretical calculations, and combining with their newly created tables of figures a rare quality of practical application and unswerving courage, had accomplished the impossible. Wilbur and Orville Wright—two names that must always be linked with those of Fulton and Stephenson, only possibly on a higher plane as conquerors of a more subtle element—were at that very time making flights in all directions at will through the air in their practicalflying-machine. While others caviled and doubted, these two modest inventors worked and accomplished; until presently they were able to put in evidence a mechanism that may perhaps without exaggeration be regarded as the harbinger of a new era of civilization.
The interest of these two brothers in the fascinating field of air navigation was first excited when, as boys, their father, a clergyman, brought home for their amusement the little toy known to scientists as a "hélicoptère," which, actuated by twisted rubbers that drive tiny paper screws in opposite directions, actually rises and flutters through the air. "A toy so delicate lasted only a short time in the hands of small boys, but its memory was abiding" the inventors themselves have tersely said. So abiding, indeed, that a few years later they began making similar "bats," as they had dubbed the machines.
Soon they discovered that the larger the machine they made the less it flew, and in pondering this fact they gradually evolved for themselves the theory which is now known as Langley's unyielding mathematical law, referred to a few pages back. The problem of human flight had not been considered by them at this time, and it was not until the news of Lilienthal's death startled the world that they entered the field of invention in earnest. Then they began constructing gliding machines, modifications of those of Lilienthal and Chanute, and began making long flights, studying defects and overcoming adverse conditions as they presented themselves.
By 1901, they had surpassed the performances of allpredecessors, yet, as they tell us, "we saw that the calculations upon which all flying-machines had been based were unreliable, and that all were simply groping in the dark. Having set out with absolute faith in the existing scientific data, we were driven to doubt one thing after another, till finally, after two years of experiment, we cast it all aside, and decided to rely entirely upon our own investigations. Truth and error were everywhere so intimately mixed as to be indistinguishable. Nevertheless, the time expended in preliminary study of books was not misspent, for they gave us a good general understanding of the subject, and enabled us at the outset to avoid effort in many directions in which results would have been hopeless."
From mere gliding machines without self-contained power the brothers progressed through the various stages of achievement until in the fall of 1903 they had created the type of flying-machine now made so familiar to everyone through the pictorial publications. Incidentally they had invented and constructed their own gasoline motor for furnishing the power—an accomplishment of no mean importance in itself. On December 17th, 1903, in the presence of a small company of witnesses who had braved the cold, the Wright machine, carrying one of the brothers, made a short but successful flight—the first ever accomplished in which a machine carrying a passenger had raised itself by its own power, sailed a certain distance in free flight, yet subject to guidance, and landed itself and its passenger safely. Mr. Hiram Maxim's machinehad, indeed, lifted itself and its passengers, but it sailed unguided through the air, and it could in no sense be said to have made a flight comparable to that of a bird or a bat. The Wright machine, on the other hand, progressed through the air under guidance of its passenger, rising or settling, or turning to right or left as he wished. Its progress constituted, in other words, a veritable flight.
Yet the problem of perfectly controlled flight under all ordinary conditions was by no means completely mastered. The principle was correct, but there were endless details to be worked out. The embodiment of these is the Wright flying-machine of the present time.
In the Wright aeroplane the lifting power is obtained by two parallel horizontal planes of canvas stretched over retaining-frames, placed with their long diameters transversely to the direction of flight, as in the case of the wings of a bird. At a little distance, in front of these, are placed two horizontal parallel rudders, and at the back two parallel vertical rudders. The machine is mounted on huge skids, which resemble giant sled-runners in shape, but lighter and more flexible, and is driven by two wooden-bladed propellers not unlike some of the types of ship-propellers. For stability in flight under all kinds of atmospheric conditions this machine has shown itself to be a true flying-machine, capable of navigating the air in any direction at the will of the operator, and remaining in flight a length of time dependent entirely upon the amount of fuel carried.
The stability of this machine, particularly in atransverse direction, has proved far greater than that of any of its predecessors or contemporaries. The two horizontal rudder-planes mounted in front maintain the fore-and-aft stability; while keeping the machine on an even keel is accomplished by varying the angle of incidence by warping the two main planes,—this being, indeed, a vitally important feature of the mechanism. In this manner a greater lift on the low side and a diminished lift on the high side is obtained, this being maintained manually, as is the fore-and-aft stability. Since the warping of the wings of the machine would tend to deflect it from its course, the apparatus is so arranged that a single lever controls the flexible portion of the wings and the vertical rudder, the motion of the latter counteracting the disturbing influence that would otherwise result from the twisting of the wing-tips. The discovery of this combination gave the finishing touches to the aeroplane, and made it a manageable mechanism. In other words, it made the flying machine a machine in which man could fly.
MR. WILBUR WRIGHT PREPARING TO ASCEND IN HIS AEROPLANE WITH HIS PUPIL M. CASSANDIER.
MR. WILBUR WRIGHT PREPARING TO ASCEND IN HIS AEROPLANE WITH HIS PUPIL M. CASSANDIER.
This mechanism was patented in 1906, and the patent office specifications then became accessible to other experimenters. The French scientific workers had for some time recognized the success of the Wright brothers' efforts, even when most Americans were still skeptical. Now that the manner in which this success had been obtained was disclosed, numerous experimenters began copying the Wright brothers' successful machine, making sundry modifications, while still adhering to the main principles through which success had been obtained. The first of these experimenters to winconspicuous success was Mr. Henry Farman, an Englishman residing in Paris, who on the 13th of January, 1908, aroused the enthusiasm of the entire world, and won a £2000 prize, by flying in a heavier-than-air machine in a prescribed circle, covering about sixteen hundred yards, and alighting at the starting-point.
This was more than four years after the Wright brothers had made far more remarkable flights, to which few persons had paid any attention, and of which most people had never heard. But in the autumn of the same year Orville Wright in America, and Wilbur Wright in France began a series of public flights which demonstrated for all time that the air at last had been conquered, and that they were the unquestionable conquerors. Orville, at Fort Myer, near Washington, on September 12th, electrified the world by flying continuously around a circular course for an hour and fifteen minutes. This was the most conclusive performance yet accomplished and set at rest all doubts as to the possibility of mechanical flight. For no one could doubt that a machine which could maintain itself in the air by its own power for more than an hour was truly a flying-machine in the most exacting sense of the term.
A few days after this performance an accident to the propeller of this machine wrecked it, the resulting fall breaking the leg of the inventor, and killing his companion, Lieutenant Selfridge of the United States Army.
Almost simultaneously Wilbur Wright began a series of flights at Le Mans, France, which demonstratedstill more conclusively that erstwhile earth-bound man had really learned to fly. His longest flight lasted for two hours, twenty minutes, and twenty-three seconds; while by flying over captive balloons at an altitude of three hundred and sixty feet, he demonstrated that the mere matter of altitude offered no obstacle.
From this time forward the number of aeronauts increased day by day, and new records were made in bewildering confusion. Only a few of the more spectacular of these need be referred to. On July 19, 1909, Hubert Latham attempted a flight across the English Channel, but his motor failed him and his machine plunged into the water, from which, however, he was rescued, having suffered no injury. On July 25th, Louis Blériot made a similar attempt with better results. Starting from the cliffs near Calais he made the passage without mishap and landed near Dover.
THE FARMAN AEROPLANE.This is the machine with which Mr. Farman, an Englishman living in France, won the Deutsch prize in the early spring of 1908. This performance was notable as being the most important public flight hitherto made by a heavier-than-air machine. The Wright brothers of Dayton, Ohio, had made numerous flights of far greater length, but the general public was not aware of that fact and for a time Mr. Farman was popularly regarded as the foremost of aviators. His best performances were, however, eclipsed by the public flights of the Wright brothers a few months later.
THE FARMAN AEROPLANE.This is the machine with which Mr. Farman, an Englishman living in France, won the Deutsch prize in the early spring of 1908. This performance was notable as being the most important public flight hitherto made by a heavier-than-air machine. The Wright brothers of Dayton, Ohio, had made numerous flights of far greater length, but the general public was not aware of that fact and for a time Mr. Farman was popularly regarded as the foremost of aviators. His best performances were, however, eclipsed by the public flights of the Wright brothers a few months later.
THE FARMAN AEROPLANE.
This is the machine with which Mr. Farman, an Englishman living in France, won the Deutsch prize in the early spring of 1908. This performance was notable as being the most important public flight hitherto made by a heavier-than-air machine. The Wright brothers of Dayton, Ohio, had made numerous flights of far greater length, but the general public was not aware of that fact and for a time Mr. Farman was popularly regarded as the foremost of aviators. His best performances were, however, eclipsed by the public flights of the Wright brothers a few months later.
There was of course no particular difficulty involved in the flight across the Channel; but its obvious dangers, together with the suggestion as to the new possibilities of the use of the airship in war time,—the virtual elimination of that all-important barrier of water that had proved so effective against England's foes in the past,—gave to Blériot's flight a popular interest not exceeded by any preceding achievement even of the Wright brothers. We may add that Blériot's feat was presently duplicated by another Frenchman, Count Jacques de Lesseps by name, who crossed the Channel in an aeroplane in May, 1910; and excelled by the Hon. Charles S. Rolls, an Englishman, who on June2nd, 1910, made a still more remarkable flight, in which he crossed the Channel, starting from the cliffs near Dover, and after circling over French soil without landing, returned to his starting-place. The aeroplanes used by the two Frenchmen were of the monoplane type; that used by Mr. Rolls was a Wright bi-plane.
Just at the time when the first successful cross-Channel flight was made, the attention of aviators was focussed on the flights being made near Washington by Mr. Orville Wright in the attempt to fulfill the Government tests which had been so tragically interrupted the year before. On July 27th, 1909, Mr. Wright successfully met the conditions of the endurance test, by flying more than an hour carrying as a passenger Lieutenant Frank P. Lahm. Three days later a more spectacular flight, to a distance of five miles across country and return, over tree-tops, hills, and valleys, with a passenger (Lieutenant Foulois), was accomplished without mishap. This was in many respects the most important flight, as suggesting the possible practical utility of the aeroplane, that had hitherto been made.
Later in the same year Mr. Orville Wright went abroad with his aeroplane and made a large number of flights at Berlin, demonstrating to the German people the points of superiority of the aeroplane as against the gigantic dirigible balloons to which that nation had heretofore paid chief attention. Mr. Wilbur Wright meantime remained in America to give flights about New York Harbor during the Hudson-Fulton Centenary Celebration. On October 4th (1909), he made a sensational flight up the Hudson from Governor's Island,circling about above the warships anchored in the river in the neighborhood of Grant's Tomb, and returning to land at his starting-point. What would probably have been a still more spectacular flight was prevented by an accident to Mr. Wright's motor just as he was about to start on the afternoon of the same day.
Another flight that aroused great popular interest and enthusiasm was made by the Frenchman Louis Paulhan in competition for a prize of ten thousand pounds offered by the Daily Mail of London for a flight from London to Manchester. Paulhan left London at 5:20 on the evening of April 28, 1910. He descended at Litchfield but renewed his flight early next morning, arriving at Manchester at 8:10. He had covered the distance of 186 miles with a single stop, his actual flying time being four hours and eleven minutes, or an average rate of 44.3 miles an hour. In this flight M. Paulhan had for his only competitor Mr. White, an Englishman, who made a daring flight but did not cover the entire distance.
Paulhan had previously been known as one of the most daring of aviators. At Los Angeles, California, on January 13, 1910, he rose to a height of about 4,163 feet, establishing a record for altitude. He had also made thrilling cross-country flights on the occasion of the Los Angeles meet, as well as in France. Paulhan's record flights were made in a Farman bi-plane.