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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 2128.PDF
•LIGHT International, 5 December 1963 929 Barlatier & Blanc, Vuia, Cornu, Cody, and a German syndicate are all experimenting with dynamic flying machines. Some of them may develop into something . . ." And they did. If one or two used a Wright-type front elevator it was not novel as Maxim had used it a decade earlier, and the layout and detail design was uninfluenced by the Wrights. That is the point which Voisin, through his journalistic ghost-writer, is trying to make—and he expects his share of credit. And thus back to my theme of an ungenerous review. Charles Gibbs-Smith is like a lion prowling the pages of history, roaring magnificently. One would like to pat his noble head and talk about early-birds—but he makes it difficult. To those of us who are not professional historians he often seems too arbitrary in arriving at conclusions which he regards as indisputable. As a nice example of ignoratio elenchi his reply to my letter would be hard to beat. He seems to have got me confused with Voisin. I certainly did not suggest the Wrights were untruthful, nor say that I believed the statement of Drinkwater—but probably Voisin does. My sole individual contribution was "a lucky fluke," and even that was the outcome of Voisin's slant on the Wrights' flights of 1903 and 1904. Despite greater power they could barely do straights in the second year until the derrick was devised. That leads me to ask by what authority can anyone pontify "that ability to take off under their own power has never been an accepted criterion for early flying machines; it is, of course, sustentation beyond the influence of momen tum that counts, than ability to be controlled?" The Wrights knew they couldn't get up enough "momentum." Therefore the need for a gale. It is a pity Charles was not there a few decades earlier to tell early-birds what the rules were. Probably he would have disqualified Wilbur on the 59sec flight because the machine seems to have hit the sand midway along its uncertain course, scoring a long groove, then ballooned and certainly crashed on landing. Neverthe less, I am second to none in acknowledging that the supreme achievement of those early days was the wonderful work of the Wrights. Will it provoke another outburst if I add that some years ago I experimened with a 28 h.p. high-drag biplane of light wing-loading in order to check the Gibbs-Smith yardsticks? Setting a series of powers progressively above and below that required for minimum level flight I tried to bounce the machine into the air. You should try this momentum business, Charles! I came to the obviously mistaken conclusion (or so I shall be told) that Roe and Cody were truly flying even at their most modest claims. Nether Compton, Dorset HARALD J. PENROSE SIR,—Treading delicately between the embattled historians, may I put in a word in defence of the claim that the Wrights were the first men really to fly and that they showed the French how to do it? No one has even proved that any statement made by the Wrights was untrue, and they stated that from the end of 1905 until their public demonstrations in the USA and in France in the summer of 1908 they did no flying. (This may seem odd till one remembers they had "know-how" for which the world had waited some thousands of years; that they had financed its development themselves and naturally wanted to tie-up patents and contracts before lifting the veil of security. Wouldn't you?) Now, they hadn't, either of them, flown for two-and-a-half years; yet within an hour of restarting it they were executing well-flown circles and figures of eight—and low flying at that. This, from our own knowledge of piloting, is conclusive proof that they must have amassed many hours' flying time before December 1905 —nearly a year before Santos Dumont's 14bis staggered 200m on November 21, 1906. And is not the 1908 achieve ment proof that, unstable though it was, the 1905 Wright had both a respectable reserve of power and really effective controls? Certainly the Voisin which Henry Farman persuaded round an (unbanked) circuit of 1km on January 13, 1908, had neither. By the time of the Rheims meeting in the summer of 1909 the French had spotted the defects in their designs, and had added a measure of stability—but they'd watched Wilbur a year earlier! Looked at another way, there were in 1905 in Dayton two men and a machine that would have been capable of taking the A-licence tests for private pilots in the 1930s, except that they could not have reached the required height. And no aeroplane elsewhere left the ground till a year later. Hintlesham, Ipswich JACK PARHAM (Maj Gen, Rtd.) LSAB's 100th Meeting SIR,—On Wednesday, December 11, from 7 to 9.45 p.m. the London Society of Air-Britain will celebrate its 100th monthly meeting, and this occasion will be celebrated in the form of the unique eighth Annual Test Pilots' Forum. LSAB has always had an association with test pilots in that the first president was Hedley Hazelden of Handley Page and the current president is S. B. Oliver of Hunting. With "Oily" Oliver in the chair, the eighth TP Forum will comprise old friends Ron Gellatly of the Westland Group and Jock Bryce of BAC. Newcomers will be Godfrey Auty of BAC (Bristol) and Cdr Pat Chilton of RAE Bedford. What makes the event unique is that it has become one of the most popular unrecorded events in the aviation calendar. Because the "off-the-record" record remains unblemished, the commentary is happily informal and apparently as much enjoyed by the participants as the audience. We of LSAB would like to take this opportunity to thank the scores of speakers who have given their time so freely in the past. That our audience travels an average of ten miles to attend these events shows the interest engendered. In fact we have one member who regularly commutes from Peterborough! For potential visitors, the venue is the Holborn Central Library at 38 Theobalds Road (near Gray's Inn Road intersection), London WC1. London W3 CHARLES W. CAIN, Hon Organizer, LSAB FORTHCOMING EVENTS RAeS, Cambridge Branch: "Passenger Services in Airline Operation," by E. P. Whitfield. RAeS, Halton Branch: "Space Projects and their Military Applications," by M. N. Golovine. RAeS, Yeovil Branch: "Industrial Photography," by S. W. Kenyon. British Institution of Radio Engineers, North Western Section: "Satellites for Television Communications," by L. F. Mathews. Women's Engineering Society: "Stress Analysis," by D. S. Houghton. Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators: Presentation on the National Air Traffic Control Services, by A VM Sir Laurence Sinclair. British Institution of Radio Engineers, South Midlands Section: "Methods of Distinguishing Sea Radar Targets from Clutter," by A. Harrison, RAeS Man Powered Aircraft Croup: "Possible Applications of Flapping Flight to Man-powered Aircraft," by J. S. Elliott. British Interplanetary Society: "Recent Findings on the Moon," by Dr G. Fielder. RAeS, Reading Branch: "Satellite Tracking and Telemetry," by Mr Nicholson. Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators: Livery dinner. RAeS, Boscombe Down Branch: "Man in Space," by J. E. Gabb. RAeS, Luton Branch: "Communication Satellites," by L. H. Bedford. RAeS: London Airport Branch: Symposium on super sonic transports. Speakers: Dr A. E. Russell, Dr S. G. Hooker, C. Abell and J. M. Ramsden. RAeS, Christchurch Branch: Film evening. London Society of Air Britain: 8th Annual Test Pilots' Forum. RAeS Graduates' and Students' Section: "Operational Problems of Supersonic Airliners," by A. Symon. British Institution of Radio Engineers, North Eastern Section: "Optical Masers," by J. H. Sanders. Dec 5 Dec 5 Dec 5 Dec 5 Dec 5 Dec 5 Dec 6 Dec 6 Dec 7 Dec 9 Dec 10 Dec 10 Dec 10 Dec 10 Dec 11 Dec 11 Dec 11 Dec 11
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