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Aviation History
1909
1909 - 0251.PDF
MAY I, 1909. The Bleriot Aeroplane. F'ollowing Farman's first flight from town to town, M. Bleriot with his monoplane aeroplane made a flight from Toury to the neighbourhood of Artenay and back, a total distance of about 28 Fig 23.—Orville Wright and passenger,Fort Meyer, Va., September 12th, 1908. Time of flight, 9 mins. 6 sees. kiloms. He landed twice during these flights, and covered 14 kiloms. of his journey in about 10 minutes, or attained a speed of 52 miles an hour. The " June Bug" (Fig. 25). The "June Bug" was designed by the Aerial Experiment Asso- ciation, of which Alexander Graham Bell is president. It has two main superposed aerosurfaces with a spread of 42 ft. 6 ins., including wing tips, with a total supporting surface of 370 sq. ft. The tail is of the box type. The vertical rudder above the rear edge of the tail is 30 ins. square. The horizontal rudder in front of the main surfaces is 30 ins. wide by 8 ft. long. There are four triangular wing tips pivoted along their front edges for maintaining transverse equilibrium. The vertical rudder is operated by a steering wheel, and the movable tips by cords attached to the body of the aviator. \ Fig. 24.—Farman Aeroplane. The motor is a 25-h.p., 8-cyl., air-cooled Curtiss. The single wooden propeller immediately behind the miin surfaces is 6 ft. 2 ins. in diameter, and mounted directly on the motor-shaft. It has a pitch angle of about 17°, and is designed to run at about 1,203 r.p.m. The total weight of the machine, with aviator, is 650 lbs. It has a load of about if lb. per sq. ft. of supporting surface. Two Fig. 25.—" June Bug " Aeroplane. Hammondsport, N.Y., Aerial Experiment Association. pneumatic-tyred bicycle wheels are attached to the lower part of the frame. With this machine, Mr. G. H. Curtiss, on July 4th, 1908, won the Scientific American trophy by covering a distance of over a mile in 1 min. 42! sees, at a speed of about 39 m.p.h. (To be continued.) CORRESPONDENCE. ::':; |; *,* The name and address of the writer (not necessarily for publication) MUST in all cases accompany letters intended for insertion, or containing queries. MODEL AEROPLANING—A SUGGESTION. To the Editor of FLIGHT. SIR,-—Now that the summer is upon us and our thoughts and inclinations naturally turn to sports and pastimes of an outdoor character, I think the chance should not be let slip of making model aeroplaning the coming juvenile summer sport both at the seaside and elsewhere. A year ago last summer the writer spent part of his holiday at Boulogne when diabolo was all the rage ; there are not wanting signs to show that the rage abroad this summer will be that indicated above. What ground or spot better suited for the flight of even the most delicately constructed model than the soft stretch of silver sand along the seashore. There should be but little difficulty in arranging contests similar to the old " Concours de Diabolo" formerly held abroad, with prizes for the longest and steadiest flights, &c. These contests would, I think, naturally divide themselves into the following heads :— (a) Original models; (b) Open to models of any kind. ' a) gives a chance to the inventor, (b) for the skill of the user. These, again, might be subdivided into (i) Models thrown or projected into the air ; (ii) Models which must rise from the ground, or start from a suspensory support without any external motive power. There should be no difficulty in securing offers of prizes. Manu- facturers and large dealers in aeronautical toys and models would— from a business point of view—probably be only too glad to offer such, apart from individual seaside amusement committees' offers. Personally I am prepared to offer a prize for the best model flight made by a machine constructed by any schoolboy of strictly British nationality. I remain, dear Sir, yours very faithfully, 31, Gleneagle Road, V. E. JOHNSON. Streatham, S.W. 253
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