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Aviation History
1909
1909 - 0113.PDF
FEBRUARY 27, 1909. "Flight" Copyright Photo. THE BRITISH ARMY AEROPLANE.—The above photograph was taken while the machine was in motion across the .ground a few seconds after the start. Mr. Cody is at the wheel. joes not, therefore, run undue risks of being damaged while starting. From a constructional point of view, flying machines Df this kind will essentially appeal in different ways to the mechanical and unmechanical mind. The latter is inclined to argue, why have so many wires and stays all over the place, which get in the way and are so liable to be broken ? There certainly are a great number of these members, but the engineer knows very well that it would be dangerous to leave out a few of them lest the others should break of their own accord. Our readers will doubt- less remember that it was because of the inevitable wires that M. Esnault Pelterie decided to adopt a monoplane as a practical flyer after he had experimented with a Wright glider. Different engineers would doubtless have constructed such a machine as the army biplane on different systems, some using one material and some another, but it is questionable whether there would be a vast difference in the results. Possibly it might be preferable to use built-up hollow wood spars instead of bamboo poles for the outriggers, but questions of this sort are very largely influenced by finance, and it is therefore very difficult to find any just cause for that adverse criticism which has occasionally been directed against the British Army machine. Readers of our first article of the series " How Men Fly," will be in- terested to learn that the petrol-tank and all the struts between the two decks of the aeroplane have a torpedo- shaped section, with the blunt edge facing forwards. In view of the unpropitious state of the wind, it was not intended, when the machine was taken out for the first time on Thursday, to make any attempt at an extensive flight with it, but two short flights were nevertheless accomplished, as incidental to the trials of the machine over the ground ; and although quite short in duration, and carried out at an altitude of only a foot or so from the ground, they were far from being devoid of interest. From the spectator's point of view, the second of the two flights was the more important of the two, inasmuch as the machine was then approaching head-on against the wind. For a while it sailed along on an even keel, and without rolling in the least, but gradually the right wing rose higher than the left, until it seemed that the latter must certainly strike the ground and be wrecked. Just before landing, however, the machine partially righted itself and thus avoided any further damage beyond the bursting of a tyre on the outer wheel. The impression which we received from watching the machine heel over was that it was being subjected to an uprising current of air, which had caught the right wing first, and thereafter continued to slowly but steadily upset the balance by its direct pressure. This is, of course, merely an impression received by watching the action of the machine ; and we base it largely on the fact that the heeling over seemed to take place comparatively slowly, and in such a way that, had one been alongside the machine at the time, one would have felt tempted to pull the wing downwards by force. There are, attached to the front edges of the lower planes, near their outer ends, righting sails, which take the place of the pivoted tips employed on some of the monoplanes; they are intended to act in the same way as warping the main planes themselves does on the Wright aeroplane. These sails are sheets of canvas, which nor- mally lie flush with the surface of the planes, but can be inclined by lifting their rear edges as occasion requires. " Flight" Copyright Photo. THE BRITISH ARMY AEROPLANE.—The end oE a flight. Just before landing the aeroplane tilted over on one side, and the above photograph was secured at this critical moment. 115
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