190 THE PROBLEM OP FLYING. 



back. iSTor do repeated changes of the center of gravity alter the case 

 beyond making it turn over backward instead of forward, leaving the 

 conditions as unstable as before. Fancy the fate of the man who con- 

 fides in such an apparatus. 



Shall we now give up all hopes of success or shall we try new means 

 to deprive the flying machine of its vicious propen?sities? This ques- 

 tion has been answered in various ways. On the one hand it is thought 

 that it should be possible, by mechanical means, to produce stable 

 flight automatically, and an association of engineers of repute at Augs- 

 burg — an excellent proof that investigations of the art of flying have 

 begun to be taken up by willing and self-sacrificing men — has among 

 other tilings proposed, meclianical contrivances for the regulation of 

 soaring. 



FHi. 1. 



The apparatus is meant to descend from a ca[)tive ballot m. V>y tlie 

 application of ingenious methods the sailing surfaces (wings) are forced 

 to retain their inclination. According to the report of Engineer JM. Von 

 Siegsfeld on the subject, no system has as yet been discovered that 

 would promise sufficient security to any one sailing at a considerable 

 elevation. 



As desirable as it is that these investigations should dis<-over safe 

 automatic devices to give stability to soaring, it remains, on the other 

 hand, doubtful whether the dangers attending such flights could even 

 then be obviated. I am of the opinion that the evolution of the flying 

 machine will be similar to that of the bicycle, which was not made in a 

 day,and that this will not be either. ^ Although in soaring the center of 

 gravity may be placed below the center of pressure of the supi^orting 

 air, it appears that even in this case, on account of the elasticity of the 

 air itself, i)ermanent stability could only be obtained by a constant 

 and arbitrary correction of the position of the center of gravity. This 



