Brixton
S.W.
ARIES P UBLI THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF SPORT AERONAUTICS. — Introduction.
Nature suggested to man the feasibility of locomotion in the air quite as early as she water and the earth, but it has remained for the present generation of human beings to see any real and continued success attained in aerial navigation. In speed and carryingpower we have long since surpassed Nature both on sea and land, but until quite recently it could not be said that we were able to devise machines which could efficiently navigate the air. Few scientific problems have been so baffling to successive generations, but hardly any so fascinating. To fly has been one of man's earliest ambitions, and, as he progressed from one triumph to another on land and sea, he has found it all the more galling to contemplate the vast aerial ocean where winged creatures alone could travel with ease. Almost every scientific man in every age has thought out schemes for solving the problem of aerial navigation, and the history of their failures is a melancholy but wonderful tribute to man's perseverance. Dreamers, poets, artists, and wellnigh every person with progressive ideas or imagination have yearned to emulate the birds in their easy progression through the upper air; and, as the history of the movement shows us, many people, without a grain of artistic feeling, imagination, or, indeed, mechanical or inventive skill, have developed a strange desire to build them ships of the air.
It may be opportune to first inquire into the difficulties which have so long delayed the practical stage of aerial nagivation being reached, in order that we may gain some idea of the obstacles which had to be overcome, and also to realise how hopeless it was for any real progress to be made until mechanical science had advanced very considerably in many other branches. We can thus understand the impossibility of successful aerial machines being built at a time even when land and water navigation had been much developed; and, finally, it may be borne in upon us that much of the credit which is to-day heaped upon successful inventors might with more justice be given to the earlier workers who had, in effect, devised almost similar arrangements, but who had not the necessary motive power to actuate their devices.
The air is an invisible ocean of gaseous matter, and volume for volume is, roughly speaking, one-thousandth part the weight of water. Man's proper domain is on land, and for locomotion over the earth he has been naturally fitted by ages of adaptation.
He also learned in time to avail of other land animals for transport purposes. The invention of the wheel marked the first, and, indeed, the most important era in land locomotion, and since then we have progressed along the lines of making smooth and still smoother routes on which the wheels can run. To-day the line of progress is the supplanting of animal traction by mechanical traction. With routes to travel over, and with an unlimited supply of tractive power available, man had only to increase and improve this power.
As regards progression by water, the buoyant power of that fluid must have been discovered at a very early period in human history, and it must soon have been suggested to the primitive man that floating objects like trees could support an additional load, and that their carrying capacity might be further increased by making the trunks hollow. The power of the wind suggested sails, and thus, by slow evolution, man arrived at the sailing-ship, and thence to the ship in which mechanical power of a type already employed on land could be utilised for driving a ship through the water. Thus, from a very early age, man has been familiar with land and water navigation, and the lines of progress have been more or less obvious. But he has never had the power of rising into the air by his own exertions, save by bounding upwards a few feet, only to fall down heavily again.
Here, in the overcoming of the always existent force of gravity, lay the problem. Aerial navigation must necessarily be based on observation and deduction, at least at first. The bird can fly, and the cause of its flight are its wings. But even here a complication arose as regards the pre-scientific man, for he was frequently witness of birds floating in the air with motionless wings, and rising and falling without the B slightest exertion, such as those of the hawk tribe. This must have seemed mysterious, though simple enough to explain now, when kites are in the hand of every child. [AERONAUTICS lightness and mobility is more subject than any other medium to violent disturbances, so that the aerial sea is seldom or never in a state of stagnation. Storms of incredible BLÉRIOT MONOPLANE.
THE BLÉRIOT No. XII.
The first efforts at flight naturally emulated the birds by using wing-like devices, but after a long and weary series of failures it was learned that man, by his own power, was unable to attain flight by the use of such wings, though he might glide short distances. It remained for later ages to measure the powers of various animals, and to prove scientifically that man, as compared with most living creatures, is a weakling, at any rate compared from a flying point of view.
When man came to study the navigation of the air, he found no substance at hand which could float in that medium and carry a useful load. He had thus to design a machine which, by mechanical means, would support itself in the air, and by similar means move itself through the air. In effect, a double problem had to be solved, and, were it not for the living example of the birds, man would not have attempted the task until comparatively recently.
Further study of the problem showed that to cause heavy bodies to rise in the air a good deal of propulsive power was required, which could not be provided without heavy additional weight, until internal combustion engines had been brought to a high state of efficiency.
Even now, when this power is provided, we must bear in mind that the air from its fierceness spring up quickly, and they are even a serious menace to locomotion both on land and water. At such times no vessel could navigate the air, and the only course open to a bird or an aerial ship would be to run with the gale or come to earth.
Minor disturbances, such as squalls, gusts, puffs, &c., are very disconcerting also, and by their frequency they will render the air very difficult for navigation, whilst they will, as in the past, bring disaster to many experimenters. Thus there are many circumstances combining to render the air a most difficult medium to navigate; but this very difficulty, and the attendant dangers, have but added to the fascination which the problem holds out.
That most of the difficulties will eventually be conquered is highly probable, but it is tolerably certain that no airship will be able to give the regularity of service which we obtain in land or sea locomotion to-day, owing to the inherent fact that the air is more liable to violent disturbance than sea or land. Many other limitations exist which will conspire to narrow the scope of aerial vessels, and we must disabuse our minds of those false ideas circulated by unthinking people on the possibilities of aerial navigation superseding various forms of locomotion on land and sea. Future ages will no doubt lead AERONAUTICS] to the invention of engines so light and so powerful that our most highly developed motors of to-day will compare as badly with them as human haulage compares with mechanical transport. By that time aerial locomotion will be able to avail itself of these light and powerful engines, and it is perhaps to the development of speed and power in relation to the weight of engines that we must look for the practical solution of the many problems which still remain unsolved. Types of Vessels. The most convenient arrangement in dealing with the subject will be to divide airships or aerial vessels into two main classes :- (1) Flying machines, or dynamic flight machines, under which must be grouped all apparatus heavier than air. These include aeroplanes of all kinds, such as monoplanes and biplanes, helicopteres, ornithopteres, &c. (2) Floating machines, or lighter-than-air vessels, including non-steerable balloons and dirigible balloons. 66 A good deal of confusion has arisen owing to the careless nomenclature adopted in many instances. Thus the term aeroplane" is a misnomer, since the machine has curved, not plane, surfaces. Mr. Lanchester has suggested "aerodrome," but this leads to worse confusion, since the term has already been applied on the Continent to the ground where aeroplane contests are held. The scientific societies have allowed the time to pass in which suitable terms could have been selected and popularised and thus to a certain extent the current terminology must now be adopted.
Flying Machines. - In the legends of almost every great race some mention may be found of flying machines, and the history of these mythical engines would make an interesting commentary on human progress.
That actual attempts at flight were made at a very early period in many countries must be admitted, but it is equally clear that not one of these attempts was successful, for they were all based on incorrect principles, and all the machines lacked the necessary propulsive power. The accounts of these legendary flights have no real importance in the history of aeronautics, since the machines used are so vaguely and imperfectly described as to convey no exact idea of the means employed. But it can be safely assumed that no successful flight was ever made, as the accounts bear internal evidence of being the imaginative work of writers who had no scientific knowledge of the essentials of a flying machine.
At much later periods we begin to find 13 13 BLÉRIOT MONOPLANE.
M. DELAGRANGE IN FLIGHT.
B 2 indications that mechanical flight devices actually existed, and circumstantial details are supplemented by crude drawings in many cases. Not, however, until the fifteenth century do we find any really instructive attempts at flight, in which man, by mechanical means, sought to obtain power to navigate the air.
As might be supposed, the method most in vogue was to fasten wings to the body and actuate them. It soon became obvious [AERONAUTICS were attached. These wings had flexible joints whereby the wings spread out on the down stroke and contracted on the upstroke. By an ingenious system of levers and pulleys, the operator worked the wings both by his arms and legs, and he assumed an inclined position to give forward motion.
The whole contrivance is remarkable for the astute knowledge displayed, but it was doomed to failure, owing to insufficient power, and to want of other requirements BLÉRIOT MONOPLANE.
M. BLÉRIOT ARRIVING AT DOVER ON BLÉRIOT NO. XI., JULY 25, 1909, AFTER WINNING THE "DAILY MAIL" PRIZE OF £1,000 FOR A CROSS-CHANNEL FLIGHT. that wings of a large size would be required, and it was but a step to the conclusion that man, by the use of his arms alone, could not move these wings in such a way as to produce flight. Experiments innumerable must have been made with wings of various sizes and shapes, and we know that they must all have failed to accomplish flight.
Leonardo da Vinci, who died about 1519. leaves us some highly interesting records of his attempts to devise an apparatus which would enable a man to use his muscular power in operating wings. He suggested a light framework to which two sets of wings which were impossible to meet at that period.
From that time forward there are various authentic instances of bird-like machines having been built, though not for many years did investigators give attention to the matter of measuring wing area in proportion to the weight carried; and in every case the mechanical means adopted for producing the wing-like motion were so crude that much power was lost.
In the seventeenth century an Italian scientist, Borelli, published his conclusions on the subject of flight, and, as he expressed AERONAUTICS] the opinion that man lacked the necessary energy to work a flying machine successfully by his own power, he damped the enthusiasm of many investigators over a considerable period. In the next century the work was taken up fitfully again, and several very ingenious but impracticable wing-flapping machines were built. Flights were attempted with these devices, the usual procedure being to leap off a tower or some other height. In some cases a certain amount of gliding motion was attained, and the operator descended to earth without serious injury; but the majority of the trials ended disastrously through the experimenter falling at once to the ground with terrible velocity. For reasons which will be more obvious later on, it can be asserted that no real flight was ever accomplished at this stage. Real flight would imply the feasibility of a man lifting himself from the ground by dynamic means, and transporting himself horizontally through GERMAN MONOPLANE.
HERR GRADE WINNING THE LANZ PRIZE OF 40,000 MARKS FOR A FLIGHT. the air in any required direction. We must distinguish between flying and gliding, as the latter merely means the gradual downward course taken by suitable bodies when projected from a height.
As a result of all those unsuccessful attempts at flight, experimenters had come to the conclusion that large wings were needed for human flight, but that man was not strong enough to actuate these in the proper manner. No further progress could hardly be made along this line, since at that time there was no power-producing engine capable of supplying the necessary energy in the required way.
After a long period of inactivity human ingenuity then evolved another mode of attack on the problem. It was argued that a certain amount of support in the air would be afforded by fixed wings, this idea being probably suggested by the sight of birds soaring with wings apparently immovable.
ANTOINETTE MONOPLANE.
M. LATHAM'S ANTOINETTE IV.
To give the necessary propulsion to such a machine, movable wings were fitted, in addition. Then came the idea of getting still more bearing surface in the air by using two sets of wings placed one above the other. But not until the nineteenth century was all this thoroughly studied.
Yet another great step was made by Wenham, an English investigator, who suggested the use of fixed rectangular planes instead of wings, and, further, devised a method of employing a series of planes mounted one above the other. To him may in great part be ascribed the invention of the modern double-deck aeroplane as used by the Wrights and most other aviators to-day. Almost at the beginning of the ANTOINETTE MONOPLANE. 29 M. LATHAM AT BLACKPOOL. nineteenth century Sir George Cayley had also made remarkable suggestions on the subject of flying machines, and his ideas must have influenced many later workers.
Henson, Stringfellow, and others also worked zealously to develop the flying machine, but for want of a motor they were unable to achieve very definite results.
Various attempts at gliding were made, but, as a rule, the machine was not satisfactory, owing to the problem of balance not being properly understood.
Lilienthal is the next great name in the history of aviation, and he took up the work [AERONAUTICS a disturbed condition, and every movement tends to upset the balance of the slow-speed gliding machine. A leaf or a sheet of paper falling from a height illustrates the many conflicting currents which disturb objects in the air.
In 1896, whilst making a glide high in the air, a fatal gust capsized his machine, and he was thrown to the ground so heavily that he died from the injuries sustained.
Lilienthal rendered grand service to aviation, and he wrote several works, in which he showed very sound knowledge of the principles of flight. He had intended fitting ANTOINETTE MONOPLANE.
THE FRAMEWORK OF ONE OF THE PLANES. with an enthusiasm and a vigour which soon led to many radical improvements. He at first employed a single-deck glider with bat-like wings, and on this he carried out many daring glides, balancing himself by shifting his weight. He progressed to a double-deck machine, and introduced several methods for increasing the stability. Leaping off from a tower, he executed many extraordinary glides on his various machines, but it was always evident that he had not conquered the vital problem of stability. Were it possible to carry out these experiments in still air, he would doubtless have been quite successful, but, in the open, the aerial sea is almost always in an internal combustion motor to one of his machines, and, but for the fatal accident, he would have carried his work much further.
The school of the fixed wing and of the superposed planes had many rivals, and during the period of Lilienthal's activity numerous other plans, more or less fantastic, were brought forward for navigating the air. The wing-flapping method was returned to in many forms, vertical lift machines were proposed, and many other ideas put forward, as much to discount the gliding planes, perhaps, as to help on the movement.
Lilienthal's death, followed three years AERONAUTICS] later by the death of Percy S. Pilcher, a young English experimenter who also was killed by falling from a gliding machine, put a check on practical work in Europe, and the centre of activity shifted to America, where a group of remarkable men had sprung into prominence. To Chanute, Herring, Langley, and many other Americans much credit is due for their investigations, and it was the stimulus given by them which in a measure induced the Brothers Wright to take up the subject. quest for a suitable place for experiment led them to the coast of North Carolina, where a remarkably steady sea breeze prevails. Projecting the machine against this wind from the top of a sandhill, glides could be made with a minimum of danger.
To reduce head resistance, they adopted the plan of lying face downwards on the machine, and as they developed the glider they were enabled soon to carry out many remarkable trips through the air, and test in a very practical manner various devices SANTOS-DUMONT MONOPLANE.
M. SANTOS-DUMONTS DEMOISELLE.
In the main the Americans favoured superposed plane machines, and when the Wrights, two young engineers of Dayton, Ohio, became interested in the matter they had a definite type of machine before them.
With characteristic energy and independence, however, they investigated the whole subject for themselves, and one of their first plans was to hit upon a safer method of testing these instruments.
They realised that in a fitful wind the machine would tend to lose balance, and that any aerial disturbance was dangerous to it. They also realised that a very steady wind was a helping factor, as it gave more support to the machine than still air, and enabled longer glides to be made. The for governing the stability and the control.
The Wright experiments began about 1900, and about 1902 they had made several glides up to 200 yards, their longest being 622 ft.
They were now emboldened to fit a petrol motor, this form of engine having at that time been carried to a high state of efficiency in Europe through the rapid growth of automobilism. The Wrights designed an engine of their own, which, though crude in many ways, gave good results; and by 1903 they fitted their engine and propellers to a double-deck machine. Later in that year they made four short flights on this the first motor-propelled flying machine ever employed.
It is worthy of note here that in 1896 [AERONAUTICS Ader, in France, built a curious bat-shaped machine to which he fitted a steam engine, and with this he claimed to have flown a distance of some hundred yards. There is a good deal of doubt cast upon this performance, and his machine cannot be classed as a practical one. In 1894 Maxim built a huge aeroplane in England, and he also fitted a steam engine. This machine was captive, in that it ran on rails, and was prevented from rising into the air by another set of rails. Elaborate experiments were made in designing this machine, but whilst being tested it broke through the rails, and was badly damaged. Further trials were abandoned for various reasons, although a great deal of useful data had been acquired. It made no free flight, however, and was never proved to be a really practicable machine.
We can thus regard the Wright machine of 1903 as the first successful flying machine fitted with an engine, and certainly the first fitted with a petrol motor. It was necessarily very crude, and the two succeeding SIR HIRAM MAXIM WITH HIS ENGINE. to the stage that over 20 miles could be flown, no purchaser could be found.
The work came almost to a standstill in 1906; but in 1907 Santos Dumont built a small flying machine in Paris, and with this made a short flight, the first in Europe to be indisputably recorded. The subject aroused considerable attention in France, WRIGHT BIPLANE.
MR. WILBUR WRIGHT IN FLIGHT. years were spent in improving it. By 1905 and Voisin, who had been working for they had made flights up to 24/4 miles, still maintaining as much secrecy as possible about their work. It was their intention to sell the secret to some Great Power, but even when the aeroplane had been brought several years on Chanute-type double-deck machines, was able in 1907 to build aeroplanes on which successful flights could be made. Henry Farman was the first to utilise the Voisin machine in a satisfactory AERONAUTICS] manner, and late in 1907 he created an immense sensation by accomplishing several remarkable flights. Delagrange soon followed his example with another Voisin machine, and early in 1908 they had established to all the world that man could fly. From a few hundred yards the distance had been increased to seven miles in May, 1908.
A period of feverish activity followed.
Biplanes of various other types were built.
Blériot and Esnault-Pelterie developed the monoplane, and accomplished short flights, and various experimenters built triplanes and many other strange forms of machines.
In America the Wrights had constructed several new aeroplanes, and by dint of many challenges they were compelled to come from their seclusion. One brother mained in the United States to give demonstrations before the military authorities, whilst the other came to France to prove their claims in Europe. re-