FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1909
1909 - 0418.PDF
JULY 17, 1909. THE, USE KITE-FLYING—which only last week formed the subject of a special article in connection with the Kite-Flying Association's competition—deals with an extremely in- teresting phase of aeronautics, and one that can be of great service in connection with certain lines of develop- ment in the matter of mechanical flight. From what has been achieved, it is already plain that vast improvement in the qualities of kites has been made of late years, and in no feature is their present excellence more marked than in the matter of automatic stability, which is one of the minor lessons they are especially able, and suited, to bring home to everybody. The relative degree of auto- matic stability which has been achieved in man-lifting kites, such as those of Cody, is very great indeed ; and when it is realised what such devices can do, even the least initiated should be able to appreciate a little of what the full conquest of the air may mean by judging of the utility of that which has already been accomplished, even in this small field. The size up to which some of these kites are now built, even those which are not intended for lifting men, must strike anyone who has not followed the subject hitherto, as being extraordinary, and as furnishing at once proof of the fact that kite-flying is not a pastime confined to boys, for some of them are quite large enough to have carried off Sinbad. It is to the very young idea, however, that we imagine the pastime of kite-flying must in the main appeal, and this is the more important, inasmuch as the encouragement of intelligent interest in aviation at this earliest age may well bring to the ranks in flight in later years the pick of the world's genius. That the hobby is not without its attractions to those of maturer, and not to say advanced years, may be gathered from the fact that the Baden-Powell Shield was won by Mr. W. Barton, of Thornton Heath, who is over seventy years of age, and who—with a vigour, strength, and agility that any athlete might envy—flew a box and wing kite, seven feet in length on the occasion of the Kite-Flying Association's recent meeting. Having spent over twenty years of his life in India, he attributes his hale old age in many ways to kite-flying, a sport which he holds to be superior even to golf. He sallies forth on kite-flying expeditions every morning, never giving in until he has '' flown something," while his evenings are for the most part devoted to designing new kites which he makes himself. This is the more interesting in that kite-flying itself is a relatively inexpensive hobby that keeps people in the open, so that practically all that is necessary for carrying out experi- ments in the matter is leisure. There are thousands who have that, and kite-flying is a hobby that does not require one's entire time. On the contrary, wherever there is suitable space and five minutes to spare, one can try to fly a kite. We have all known from our earliest days that, whereas in this country we have been wont to look on a kite as a child's toy, in the Orient kite-flying has been reduced to very much of a science. While we have marked that one of the first lessons a kite teaches the observant manipulator of the string is the importance of the factor of automatic stability in aerial navigation, we would particularly give a serious warning against making the erroneous but too common deduction that using a glider or a flyer as a kite is a good way of learning to control it. Flying a glider as a kite is a scientific means of testing its efficiency, but riding a glider while it is towed behind a motor car is a foolish and dangerous proceeding ; and another instance of its consequences is before our readers this week in our account of the Morris Park Meeting in America. Control and automatic stability are two entirely different factors, both equally important. What one may style stability is a matter of the most imminent concern in regard to the problem of navigating the air. The matter presents itself in two aspects. The first relates to its purpose, which is that of providing a mechanical substitute for the human brain. The second touches on its necessity, which is a matter of opinion in certain cases, as instance sundry flying machines, among which may be named the Wright variety, in connection with which it is maintained that automatic stability is not needful to any greater extent than it obtains in the case of a bicycle. On the other hand, there are such instruments as man-lifting and meteorological kites, wherein automatic stability passes from the realm of opinion into the region of fact. The leading feature in the competition pro- moted by the Kite-Flying Association of Great Britain has been the demonstration of automatic stability during an hour's ride in the wind. It is essential to the progress of all branches of flight, that automatic stability should be studied to the greatest possible extent. We need to know everything that can be learnt about it. Even if, in certain instances, the necessity does not exist at the moment to employ auto- matic stability, nevertheless it is obvious that in the years to come it will be desirable to apply the principles of it in a variety of ways that are not yet necessary. There- fore it behoves us to make parallel progress with this particular branch of the science that it may keep pace with developments in other directions. It is from this point of view that it is so significant that Messrs. Wright should have deemed it worth while to cover a system of automatic stability for their flyers. It is the experts and the enthusiasts who devise the original ways and means, but when it comes to commerce, which is the stage that has to be reached when mankind makes use of an invention, it is essential that as little as possible should be left to human skill and judgment and as much as possible to the self- working of the laws of Nature. It is not necessary to have every part of a machine absolutely automatic, of course. Indeed, if fifty years ago anybody had pre- tended that hundreds of thousands of people would ride bicycles he would have been laughed at because he would have been told exactly what the critics argue against Messrs. Wright to-day, that riding a bicycle is an acrobat's business. As a fact, there is not a movement which one has to make when handling a Wright machine that is any swifter or in any sense more acrobatic than is employed in the case of a bicycle. Nevertheless, if it were possible to make a bicycle automatically stable, without in any way making it more complicated or increasing its weight and bulk, there is no gainsaying that it would be a decided improvement. So it is in the matter of those flying machines to-day which do not aim at automatic stability. But in any case, since experiments in this direction can be made without undue cost, and since it is open to practically every class of the community to strive towards solving the problem more completely than has been done hitherto, it is eminently desirable that all encouragement should be afforded to kite-flyers and others, to the end of inducing them to understand this aspect of the problem of flight. 420
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
