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Aviation History
1910
1910 - 0986.PDF
(/JJGHT DECEMBER 3, 1910. OCTAVE CHANUTE. I832-I9I0. OCTAVE CHANUTE is dead, and one of the greatest pioneers of flight has closed a long and honoured association with the world's progress. Born in Paris on February T8th, 1832, Chanute was over 78 years old when he passed away at his Chicago residence on Thursday of last week, November 24th. The greater part of his life he spent in America, and spent it to such purpose, indeed, that before he took any active part in the furtherance of aviation he had already attained to the head of his profession as civil engineer. His particular work was the construction of railways, and at different periods he was engineer-in-chief to many of the principal and now famous trunk systems of that great country. Sometimes he found himself in charge of the construction of two or more lines at the same time, as, for instance, when he was chief engineer of a section of the Kansas City, Fort Scott, and Gulf Railway ; the Leavenworth, Lawrence and Galveston Railroad ; a connecting line between thesetwobelonging totheSantaFe; anda northern section of the Atchison and Nebraska Line. Among other positions, he occupied for a period of ten years the post of chief engineer to the Erie Railway, and by his brother professional men was in due course honoured with the Presidency of the American Society of Civil Engineers. It is only proper to refer to these attainments, because Chanute did not associate himself actively with the progress of flight until his later years, when he had retired from the more exacting duties of his profession ; and many Students of aviation may possibly be unaware of what type of man it was who thus gave his unstinted support to the inception of a movement that was then not only embryonic in its infancy, but commonly regarded as having a very problematical future. Attracted to a study of the principles underlying flight, Octave Chanute adopted in the first instance the emi nently practical proceeding of passing in review the experiments of others in order to find out whereabouts he might most properly commence research on his own account and in what direction it might be most profitably pursued. These researches, originally taking the form of articles, subsequently developed into his famous work entitled " Progress in Flying Machines," which was pub lished in New York in 1894, and has for some time been out of print. It is, without question, the most valuable work of its kind in existence, for it consists of a very close although very concise study of practically every experiment in aviation that had been made up to that time. Octave Chanute, however, was not content with learning about the experiments of others, for he was keen on furthering progress by his own practical work and he decided to give such time as he could to that purpose. Like Lilienthal, he grasped the importance of gliding flight, and having published an article strongly recommending others to pursue this art, he decided to institute practical experiments, if not exactly personally— for he was already 64 years of age—at any rate at his personal expense. He therefore secured the services of A. M. Herring, a much younger enthusiast than himself, who had previously made some gliding flights of his own on a Lilienthal apparatus in 1894. This machine Herring rebuilt, and also another on very different lines, suggested by Chanute. The apparatus was completed in June, 1896, and transferred to a suitable site on the shores of Lake Michigan, near St. Joseph, for trial. Chanute's glider consisted of no fewer than six pairs of wings, and experiments were conducted to find the most satisfactory disposition of the surfaces, of which five pairs of wings were ultimately superposed, while the sixth pair formed a tail. The most important new principle introduced into Chanute's glider, however, was that of maintaining equilibrium by means of moving the wings instead of the pilot. Lilienthal maintained his balance in the air by moving his body, within the frame of the machine, in any direction that might be required, and the long continued success of his experiments was unquestionably due in a large measure to his gymnastic skill and strength in performing these evolutions. Chanute, on the contrary, made the surfaces movable instead of the man, and inasmuch as his machine was designed so that the move ment in question should take place automatically—that is to say, without any action of control on the part of the pilot—it is to Chanute that we must give the credit of having first definitely attempted to pro duce a naturally stable machine. Reasonable success attended experiments with this devioe, but the principal idea of Chanute and his assistants being, apparently, to try various schemes, other machines were also built and tested. One of them was a biplane trussed with struts and diagonal wire bracing, which became, there fore, the prototype of the modern machine of this class. Chanute's experiments lasted until September of that year, (1896) when the camping party broke up for the winter, and they were not afterwards renewed. Chanute was even then 64 years of age, and although attracted to such experiments with all the fervour of youth he doubtless deemed it wise to moderate his personal participation in such experience. Moreover, the trials had served their purpose so far as Chanute was concerned and their results coming from such an authority in the engineering world induced a widespread interest in the subject. Although ceasing experiments on his own behalf, Chanute maintained an unabated interest in the practical side of the subject, and, good sportsman that he was, he went into camp with the Brothers Wright when they established themselves at Kitty Hawrk in the summer of 1900. Chanute stayed with the Brothers Wright for about a week, and the close association of these three minds must have been an important factor in the rapid development of the Wright machine. Indeed, it has always seemed to us that Chanute's active interest in the subject at large was of greater service to its development than his own active work, useful as that was, for he was acquainted with the researches of everyone and he knew most of the workers of his own time between whom and whose work he helped to forge links whereby we can now see and take advantage of the uninterrupted chain of practical experience that was commenced by Lilienthal and was first coupled up to the train of modern civilisation by the historic achievement of power-driven flight on the part of the Brothers Wright in December, 1903. It is not given to everyone to see the fruition of their ideals as Octave Chanute saw them in the success of aviation, especially when they are already advanced in years when the art in question has scarcely begun. Chanute, however, must have seen many interesting changes in his life, for it extended over a period thai covered the introduction of almost every modern con venience. That a man born in the " thirties " should end his days honoured as a pioneer of flight, is itself -an all sufficient tribute to the calibre of his mind—to the progressive spirit of Octave Chanute. 984
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