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Aviation History
1913
1913 - 0705.PDF
JULY 5, 1913. one of these experiments resu ted in his death, and thereby deprived England of a most promising student who, had he lived, might have done much to give this country pre-eminence from the first. Instead, it was in America that the influence of Lilienthal's work took permanent root. Octave Chanute, a distinguished American TQGHT] " Flight" Copyright. Ghanute's glider, piloted by A. M. Herring.—This machine was the prototype of the modern biplane. It was built in America about 1896, and tried on the shores of Lake Michigan near St. Joseph. engineer, but already an old man, was intensely interested in the prospect of flight, and extended his practical patronage to the early movement by financing an important series of experiments in which the central figure was the well-known pilot, A. M. Herring. It was while reading the simple notice of Lilienthal's fatal accident that Wilbur Wright received his inspiration to study this branch of practical science, and from the first he obtained the whole-hearted co-operation of his brother, Orville. The story of their work has been told too often to need repeating. Lilienthal died in 1896, and thereupon the Wrights commenced their studies. They built their first glider in 1900 ; it was a biplane, constructed on the trussed- bridge principle introduced by Chanute, but it differed from the Chanute machine in several important respects. Among other things, it embodied the famous wing-warping control, and the pilot, being thereby relieved of the necessity for balancing the aeroplane by gymnastic exercise, was able to lie prone on the lower plane, and so reduce the resistance of his body to a minimum. For three years the Wright brothers' experiments continued, some times in the open and sometimes in the laboratory. The longest £• •<!• s*kY % t JfjHrag gPxJ \: . <l 1 * 1 1 "Flight" Copyright. Sketch from a photograph of a 'Wright glider in ilight.— The first of these machines was built in 1900, and it had wing warping control. When first used the vertical rear plane was fixed, but later it became a pivoted rudder, and en the power-driven aeroplane was arranged for convenient simultaneous control with the warp. glide that they made at any time measured 622^ ft., and lasted 26 sees. The amount of time that they actually put in at this work was extraordinary : in a good season they were able to make between 700 and 1,000 flights, and once they made more than 375 flights in less than a week. When at last they had brought their gliding experiments to such a pitch of perfection that they could not very well hope to gain much more experience along these lines, they decided to take the next and most important step of all, which was to build an engine- driven machine that would make them independent of the winds and of the contour of the ground. Their chief difficulty was to find an engine. Although auto mobiles were already in fashion, and the high speed petrol engine had thus become the obvious type of prime mover to use, they were unable to find any motor suitable for their purpose on the market. Very characteristically, therefore, they set to work to design and construct one in their own workshops, and with this engine they equipped their new and larger aeroplane. L So carefully and so systematically had they worked throughout that the culminating success of their endeavours cann almost as a matter of course. On December 23rd, 1903, they MWBwdcJ in making four free flights, rising from level ground against the wind. In the following year many more successful flights were accomplished, and by the end of 1905 they had flown journeys exceeding 30 miles in length and lasting over half an hour in duration. By this time also they had so far improved the control of their machine that they felt justified in introducing it to the public. For the time being, therefore, they ceased their experiments in order that they mi^ht devote their time to laying the foundations of a commercial enterprise. Very few people either appreciated or really realised what the Wright brothers had done, for they invited no publicity and most of their achievements were, in fact, unseen. It was, therefore! in France during the year 1907 that the new art first publicly attracted the notice of the man in the street. Henry Farman and Leon Delagrange were the central figures of this period in the history of aviation, and it is curious, but none the less a fact, that no one at that time gave much thought or credit to the Voisin brothers who had designed and constructed the machines that these pilots were using. Gabriel Voisin was in fact one of the earliest experimenters in aviation, and some of his most exciting experiences were concerned "Flight" Copyright. The Voisin biplane with which Henry Farman won the Deutsch-Archdeacon prize of 50,000 francs on January 13th, 1908, by being the first to fly, under official observa tion, a circular course of 1 kilom. in length. with the flying of a glider as a kite while it was being towed by a fast motor boat over the Seine. It was at this earlier period, too, that the names of Archdeai -on, Bleriot, Santos Dumont, and Ksnault Pelterie were first prominent, but this progress was spasmodic in the extreme, mainly because everyone found an exceeding great difficulty in selecting a suit.ililr place for full-scale research. It was one thing to be interested in the idea of flying, but quite another to find anywhere that one could safely attempt to practise the art of flight. Santos Dumont, always an enthusiast for new things, and at that time still enamoured of the small dirigible, built an aeroplane of the tail-first type, with which he succeeded in winning the first flight prize for a glorified jump exceeding 25 metres, which he performed on October 23rd, 1906. As we have remarked, however, serious public interest was not really aroused until 1907, when Delagrange and Farman acquired their machines from Messrs. Voisin, who had established tin- fust " flight" Copyright. Santos Dumont's tall-first biplane, with which he won the first flight prize on October 23rd, 1906, by flying a distance exceeding 25 metres. aeroplane factory on the outskirts of Paris. Permission had been obtained from the authorities by Henry Farman to practise on the parade ground at Issy, and it was apparent from the first that aviation was about to enter upon a new era. France has ever justified herself as a great society of encourage- 731
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