Richard Ferris

“ Perhaps the first historical record in the line of mechanical flight worthy of attention exists in the remarkable sketches and plans for a flying mechanism left by Leonardo da Vinci at his death in 1519. He had followed the model of the flying bird as closely as possible, although when the wings were outspread they had an outline more like those of the bat. While extremely ingenious in the arrangement of the levers, the power necessary to move them fast enough to lift the weight of a man was far beyond the muscular strength of any human being. ”

“ He has explained the laws of their flight; sketched their development to the present day; shown how to build the flying machine and the balloon, and how to operate them; recounted what man has done, and what he hopes to do with their aid. In a word, all the essential facts that enter into the Conquest of the Air have been gathered into orderly form, and are here presented to the public.
We who live to-day have witnessed man’s great achievement; we have seen his dream of ages come true. Man has learned to fly! ”

“ But it is at Blackpool and Doncaster that the most distinct progress of the year is marked, by the daring flights of Le Blon and Latham in fierce gales. Spectators openly charged these men with foolhardiness, but it was of the first importance that it should be demonstrated that these delicately built machines can be handled safely in the most turbulent weather; and the fact that it has been done successfully will inspire every other aviator with a greater degree of confidence in his ability to control his machine in whatever untoward circumstances he may be placed. ”

“ One simply launches into the air, and concentrates his efforts upon balancing himself and the apparatus; not as two distinct bodies, however, but as a united whole. When practice has made perfect the ability to balance the glider instinctively, nine-tenths of the art of flying an aeroplane has been achieved. Not only this, but a new sport has been laid under contribution; one beside which coasting upon a snow-clad hillside is a crude form of enjoyment.
Fortunately for the multitude, a glider is easily made, and its cost is even less than that of a bicycle. ”

“ Of course, the possession of plans and specifications for an aeroplane does not make any man a skilled mechanic. It is well to understand at the start that a certain degree of mechanical ability is required in building a machine which will be entirely safe. Nor does the possession of a successful machine make one an aeronaut. As in the case of bicycling, there is no substitute for actual experience, while in the airship the art of balancing is of even greater importance than on the bicycle. ”

“ Once a man becomes accustomed to aeroplaning, it is a matter of unconscious attention.... He has no obstacles to encounter except cross-currents of air. Air and wind are much quicker than a man can think and put his thought into action. Unless experience has taught the aviator to maintain his equilibrium instinctively, he is sure to come to grief.”
The Wright brothers spent years in learning the art of balancing in the air before they appeared in public as aviators. ”

“ We get some idea that it exists as a substance when we see dead leaves caught up in it and whirled about; and, more impressively, when in the violence of the hurricane it seizes upon a body of great size 21 and weight, like the roof of a house, and whisks it away as though it were a feather, at a speed exceeding that of the fastest railroad train. ”

“ So far as the air currents are concerned, I rely entirely on instinctive action; but my ear is always on the alert. The danger signal of the aviator is when he hears his motor miss an explosion. Then he knows that trouble is in store. Sometimes he can speed up his engine, just as an automobile driver does, and get it to renew its normal action. But if he fails in this, and the motor stops, he must dip his deflecting planes, and try to negotiate a landing in open country. Sometimes there is no preliminary warning from the motor that it is going to cease working. ”

“ As with the man-contrived locomotive, so the perfected airship will be evolved from man’s understanding of the obstacles to his navigation of the air, and his overcoming of them by his inventive genius. ”

“ Engine troubles are much fewer than they used to be, and a more dependable form of motor relieves the mind of the aviator from such mental disturbance. Some device in the line of a wind-shield would be a real boon, for even in the best weather there is the ceaseless rush of air into one’s face at 45 to 50 miles an hour. The endurance of this for hours is of itself a tax upon the most vigorous physique. 173
With the passing of the present spectacular stage of the art of flying there will doubtless come a more reliable form of machine, with corresponding relief to the operator. ”

“ It is like offering a prize to a crowd of boys for the one who can skate slowest over thin ice. The minimum speed is the most dangerous with the aeroplane as with the skater. Other things being equal, the highest speed is the safest for an aeroplane. Even when his engine stops in mid-air, the aviator is compelled to keep up speed sufficient to prevent a fall by gliding swiftly downward until the very moment of landing.
The air surface necessary to float a plane is spread out in one area in the monoplane, and divided into 53 two areas, one above the other and 6 to 9 feet apart, in the biplane ”

“ We cannot see it, hear it, touch it.
When air is in motion (wind) we hear the noises it makes as it passes among other objects more substantial; and we feel it as it blows by us, or when we move rapidly through it. ”

“ Confronted with these new and strange shapes in the sky, some making stately journeys of hundreds of miles, others whirring hither and thither with the speed of the whirlwind, wonder quickly gives way to the all-absorbing question: How do they fly? ”

“ Let us take, for example, a man whose body is attracted by the earth with a force, or weight, of 150 pounds. To enable him to rise into the air, means must be contrived not only to counteract his weight, 41 but to lift him—a force a little greater than 150 pounds must be exerted. We may attach to him a bag filled with some gas (as hydrogen) for which the earth has less attraction than it has for air, and which the air will push out of the way and upward until a place above the earth is reached where the attraction of air and gas is equal. ”

“ The long trail of wrecks of costly aeroplanes marking the progress in the art of flying marks also the 242 lack of preparatory training, which their owners either thought unnecessary, or hoped to escape by some royal road less wearisome than persistent personal practice. But they all paid dearly to discover that there is no royal road. Practice, more practice, and still more practice—that is the secret of successful aeroplane flight.
For this purpose the glider is much superior to the power-driven aeroplane. There are no controls to learn, no mechanism to manipulate. ”

“ The earnest student of aviation is reminded that the progressive work in this new art of flying is not being done altogether, nor even in large part, by the daring operators who, with superb courage, are performing such remarkable feats with the flying machines of the present moment. Not one of them would claim that his machine is all that could be desired. On the contrary, these intrepid men more than any others are fully aware of the many and serious defects of the apparatus they use for lack of better. ”

“ When Santos-Dumont in 1909 gave to the world the unrestricted privilege of building monoplanes after the plans of his famous No. 20—afterward named La Demoiselle—he gave not only the best he knew, but as much as any one knows about the building of flying machines. Santos-Dumont has chosen the monoplane for himself because his long experience commends it above others, and La Demoiselle was the crowning achievement of years spent in the construction and operation of airships of all types. ”

“ Some military experts, however, assert that the dirigible is hopelessly outclassed for warfare by the aeroplane, which can operate in winds in which the dirigible dare not venture, and can soar so high above any altitude that the dirigible can reach as to easily destroy it. Another argument used against the availability of the dirigible as a war-vessel is, that if it were launched on a wind which carried it over the enemy’s country, it might not be able to return at sufficient speed to escape destruction by high-firing 378 guns, even if its limited fuel capacity did not force a landing. ”

“ The making of the propeller is practicable for a careful workman. The illustrations will give a better idea than words of how it should be done. It should be remembered, however, that the safety of the aviator depends as much upon the propeller as upon any other part of the machine. The splitting of the blades when in motion has been the cause of serious accidents. The utmost care, therefore, should be exercised in the selection of the wood, and in the glueing of the several sections into one solid mass, allowing the work to dry thoroughly under heavy pressure. ”

“ A lady passenger, writing of a recent trip, has thus described her experience:—“The world continues slowly to unroll itself in ever-varying but ever-beautiful panorama—patchwork fields, shimmering silver streaks, toy box churches and houses, and white roads like the joints of a jig-saw puzzle. ”

“ These arguments are based on the belief that Nature never makes a mistake; that she made the bird to fly, and therefore the bird must be the most perfect model for the successful flying machine. But the truth is, the bird was not made primarily to fly, any more than man was made to walk. Flying is an incident in the life of a bird, just as walking is an incident in the life of a man. Flying is simply a bird’s way of getting about from place to place, on business or on pleasure, as the case may be. ”

“ At thirty-eight miles it will have no weight at all, its density being so rare as just to balance the earth’s attraction. It has been calculated that the whole body of air above the earth, if it were all of the uniform density of that at sea-level, would extend only to the height of 26,166 feet. Perhaps a clearer comprehension of the weight and pressure of the ocean of air upon the earth may be gained by recalling that the pressure of the 38 miles of atmosphere is just equal to balancing a column of water 33 feet high. ”

“ Having attained the art of balancing, the aviator has to learn the mechanism by which he may control his machine. While all of the principal machines are but different embodiments of the same principles, there is a diversity of design in the arrangement of the means of control. ”

“ Notwithstanding all difficulties, the fact remains that, once they are overcome, the air is the ideal highway for travel and transportation. On the sea, a ship may sail to right or left on one plane only. In the air, we may steer not only to right or left, but above and below, and obliquely in innumerable planes. ”

“ A model flying machine built and flown by Louis Paulhan, the noted aviator, at a prize contest for models in France. The design is after Langley’s model, with tandem monoplane surfaces placed at a dihedral angle.
One of the greatest needs of the present machines is an automatic balancer which shall supersede the concentrated attention which the operator is now compelled to exercise in order to keep his machine right side up. The discovery of the principle upon which such a balancer must be built is undoubtedly within the reach of the builder and flyer of models. ”