RECENT PROGRESS IN AERIAL NAVIGATION. 623 



This may appear all right in theory, but actual experiments will at 

 once demonstrate that any compact aeroplane machine, with sufficient 

 aeroplane surface to support the accompanying weight, will sway, turn 

 sideways and upset, with all manner of erratic and unexpected move- 

 ments. 



Some four years ago M. Ader, a French engineer, attracted a great 

 deal of attention with a machine styled the 'Avion.' It had a car 

 running on four wheels, two propellers forward to pull it along, and 



Fig. 13. Beecher Moore's Flying Machine. 



two enormous bat-like wings. The wings were designed to assist in 

 soaring and in sustaining the mechanical bird in flight, when enough 

 speed was secured to carry it off the ground. The machine did fly 

 a little, but, unfortunately, like Maxim's famous machine, described 

 in the Popular Science Monthly a few years ago, broke down 

 just as it demonstrated that it had enough lifting power to get off 

 the track. Fig. 14 shows the 'Avion' as it was designed to appear 

 in flight. 



