Aeronautics

“ We had taken up aeronautics merely as a sport. We reluctantly entered upon the scientific side of it. ”

“ We have, during the seventeen years since aeroplanes first took the air, seen them grow from tentative experimental structures of unknown and unknowable performance to highly scientific products, of which not only the performances (in speed, load-carrying capacity, and climb) are known, but of which the precise strength and degree of stability can be forecast with some accuracy on the drawing board. For the rest, with the future lies—apart from some revolutionary change in fundamental design—the steady development of a now well-tried and well-found engineering structure. ”

“ The Military and Naval importance of aeronautics, more especially of mechanical flight, has in the past been slow to receive adequate recognition. Even to-day, in spite of the awakening which has been brought about by the Great War, we are far from a full appreciation of the extent to which, as a nation, our destiny will be determined by aircraft and by military aeronautics.
The early pioneers of mechanical flight were but little concerned with the prospective future of flying; they were rightly occupied in overcoming the difficulties standing in the way of achievement. ”

“ Of course, the aeronautics industry has benefited tremendously. Engines, automatic pilots, radar systems, flight equipment, capable of meeting the high standards required by space vehicles represent a great improvement over our already excellent aircraft. ”

“ If it be true that in some directions, from the point of view of those early engaged in aeronautical development, the outlook has proved a disappointment, it is no less certain that military aeronautics has not only fulfilled, but already transcended, the most sanguine expectation. ”

“ Of the age in which these men lived and worked, giving their all in many cases to the science they loved, even to life itself, it may be said with truth that ‘there were giants on the earth in those days,’ as far as aeronautics is in question. ”

“ Emphasis has been laid on the changes in the design or construction of aeroplanes and dirigibles, which show the evolution of flight and aircraft from early experiments with balloons and gliders to the transatlantic flights of the NC-4, the Vickers “Vimy” Bomber, and the R-34. Only those things have been singled out which indicated a step forward in the science of aeronautics. Emphasis is placed upon the commercial accomplishments of the aeroplane and the dirigible, and many of the present uses and future possibilities of aircraft as a commercial vehicle have been pointed out. ”

“ It would be well, of course, for the prospective aviator to make himself acquainted with the subject of atmosphere as it applies to aeronautics, to have a good general knowledge of gasoline motors, and to study the properties and qualities of the different materials which enter into the construction of the monoplane. ”

“ To give a twentieth of the contents of this volume in the present short account of the development of mechanical flight would far exceed the amount of space that can be devoted even to so eminent a man in aeronautics as S. P. Langley, who, apart from his achievement in the construction of a power-driven aeroplane really capable of flight, was a scientist of no mean order, and who brought to the study of aeronautics the skill of the trained investigator allied to the inventive resource of the genius. ”

“ The astonishing progress in aeronautics during the past year has excited public interest to the highest pitch, and the celebration commission is making every effort to assure the presence of some of the leading aeronauts and aviators. ”

“ They spread their wings to the wind, and sail by the hour, with no perceptible exertion beyond that required to balance and steer themselves. What sustains them is not definitely known, though it is almost certain that it is a rising current of air. ”

“ As the century draws to its close the interest in the subject of aeronautics steadily increases. There already exists a keen curiosity to know what the aerial machine of the future is likely to resemble, and also to know whether the nineteenth or the twentieth century will claim it for its own. ”

“ But when one looks back on those years, the firms in question stand out as exceptions to the general run of people, who regarded aeronautics as something extremely scientific, exceedingly dangerous, and very expensive. ”

“ Some of the best engineering41 talent of the world was diverted from many and various fields to the one task of supplying the demands of the military aeronauts for more speed, more power, more reliable motors, better materials and appliances. Thus the war not only perfected aeronautics—especially aviation—as an art, but practically created it as an industry. At the close of hostilities the world found itself in possession of a vast fleet of aircraft, a multitude of aircraft factories, and a great army of trained aeronauts. ”

“ I would fasten a 150 pound sack of sand in the rider's seat, make the necessary adjustments, and send up an aeroplane upside down with a balloon, the aeroplane to be liberated by a time fuse. If the aeroplane did not immediately right itself, make a flight, and come safely to the ground, the money was theirs. ”

“ Much is still empirical, so far as this branch of aeronautics is concerned, and consideration of the structural features of a propeller goes to show that the relations of essential weight and effective area do not altogether apply in practice as they stand in theory. ”

“ The authors also claim that aeronautics in the future must cease to be a highly specialized business, that the airplane will become a conveyance of everyday civilian use and that what they have written is based on actual accomplishments to date. ”

“ On every hand one sees the inventors tuning up their air-craft for the final test. There are lively discussions [Pg 10] in progress over the marvelous little toys. The layman hears a new language spoken with perfect confidence about him. The boys have already made the picturesque vocabulary of the world of aviation their own. The discussion ranges over monoplanes and biplanes, cellular types, and flexed planes, or of rigid and lateral braces. To hear a crowd of these enthusiasts shout their comments as the air-ships fly about is in itself an education in advanced aëronautics. ”

“ Comparing these two schools of thought, the helicopter and bird-flight schools, it appears that the latter has the greater chance of eventual success—that is, if either should ever come into competition with the aeroplane as effective means of flight. So far, the aeroplane holds the field, but the whole science of flight is so new and so full of unexpected developments that this is no reason for assuming that other means may not give equal effect, when money and brains are diverted from the driven plane to a closer imitation of natural flight. ”

“ So far, too, there is no evidence of the study that the conquest of the air demanded; such men as made experiments either launched themselves in the air from some height with made-up wings or other apparatus, and paid the penalty, or else constructed some form of machine which would not leave the earth, and then gave up. Each man followed his own way, and there was no attempt—without the printing press and the dissemination of knowledge there was little possibility of attempt—on the part of any one to benefit by the failures of others. ”

“ For those days, the landing demands were rather exacting; the machine should be able to rise without damage from long grass, clover, or harrowed land, in 100 yards in a calm, and should be able to land without damage on any cultivated ground, including rough ploughed land, and, when landing on smooth turf in a calm, be able to pull up within 75 yards of the point of first touching the ground. It was required that pilot and observer should have as open a view as possible to front and flanks, and they should be so shielded from the wind as to be able to communicate with each other. ”

“ It is divisible into two main branches—aerostation, dealing properly with machines which like balloons are lighter than the air, and aviation, dealing with the problem of artificial flight by means of flying machines which, like birds, are heavier than the air, and also with attempts to fly made by human beings by the aid of artificial wings fitted to their limbs. ”

“ Upon going into a mathematical calculation of the whole subject, I found that it would be possible to make a machine on the aeroplane system, driven by a steam engine, which would be sufficiently strong to lift itself into the air. ”

“ He was a genius who first hoisted a sail on a boat and saved the labour of rowing; equally, he who first harnessed ox or dog or horse to a wheeled vehicle was a genius—and these looked up, as men have looked up from the earliest days of all, seeing that the birds had solved the problem of transit far more completely than themselves. So it must have appeared, and there is no age in history in which some dreamers have not dreamed of the conquest of the air ”

“ It comes as a rolling mass, full of tumultuous whirls and eddies, like those issuing from a chimney; and they strike the apparatus with constantly varying force and direction, sometimes withdrawing support when most needed. ”

“ Men already know how to construct wings, or aeroplanes, which, when driven through the air at sufficient speed, will not only sustain the weight of the wings themselves, but also that of the engine and the engineer as well. Men also know how to build engines and screws of sufficient lightness and power to drive these planes at sustaining speed. Inability to balance and steer still confronts students of the flying problem, although nearly ten years have passed (since Lilienthal’s success) . ”

“ Consideration of the events in the years immediately preceding the War must be limited to as brief a summary as possible, this not only because the full history of flying achievements is beyond the compass of any single book, but also because, viewing the matter in perspective, the years 1903-1911 show up as far more important as regards both design and performance. From 1912 to August of 1914, the development of aeronautics was hindered by the fact that it had not progressed far enough to form a real commercial asset in any country. ”

“ The matter of experiment along any lines in connection with aviation is primarily one of hard cash. Throughout the whole history of flight up to the outbreak of the European war development has been handicapped on the score of finance, and, since the arrival of the aeroplane, both ornithopter and helicopter schools have been handicapped by this consideration. Thus serious study of the efficiency of wings in imitation of those of the living bird has not been carried to a point that might win success for this method of propulsion. ”

“ The relative movements of the air and aeroplane may be derived from the motion of the air in the form of wind blowing in the direction opposite to that in which the apparatus is travelling or by a combined downward and forward movement of the machine, as in starting from an elevated position or by combination of these two things, and in either case the operation is that of a soaring-machine, while power applied to the machine to propel it positively forward will cause the air to support the machine in a similar manner. ”

“ However, when gliding operators have attained greater skill, they can with comparative safety maintain themselves in the air for hours at a time in this way, and thus by constant practice so increase their knowledge and skill that they can rise into the higher air and search out the currents which enable the soaring birds to transport themselves to any desired point by first rising in a circle and then sailing off at a descending angle. This illustration shows the machine, alone, flying in a wind of 35 miles per hour on the face of a steep hill, 100 feet high. ”

“ Hereby the force of the wing and the resistance become balanced; so that, manifestly, the air is beaten by the wing with the same force as the resistance to the stroke.’
He concerns himself also with the most difficult problem that confronts the flying man of to-day, namely, landing effectively, and his remarks on this subject would be instructive even to an air pilot of these days: ‘Now the ways and means by which the speed is slackened at the end of a flight are these. The bird spreads its wings and tail so that their concave surfaces are perpendicular to the direction of motion ”

“ FOREWORD Although successful heavier-than-air flight is less than two decades old, and successful dirigible propulsion antedates it by a very short period, the mass of experiment and accomplishment renders any one-volume history of the subject a matter of selection. ”

“ Thus speaks the inventor; the cold official mind gives out a different account, crediting the 'Avion' with merely a few hops, and to-day, among those who consider the problem at all, there is a little group which persists in asserting that to Ader belongs the credit of the first power-driven flight, while a larger group is equally persistent in stating that, save for a few ineffectual hops, all three wheels of the machine never left the ground. ”

“ At this point it may be noted that, with the solitary exception of Le Bris, practically every student of flight had so far set about constructing the means of launching humanity into the air without any attempt at ascertaining the nature and peculiarities of the sustaining medium. ”

“ Next, since the wings with their feathers attached form almost a plane surface, they are raised slightly above the horizontal, and with a most quick impulse beat down in a direction almost perpendicular to the wing-plane, upon the underlying air; and to so intense a beat the air, notwithstanding it to be fluid,23 offers resistance, partly by reason of its natural inertia, which seeks to retain it at rest, and partly because the particles of the air, compressed by the swiftness of the stroke, resist this compression by their elasticity, just like the hard ground. ”