EXPliRIMENTS WITH THE LANOLFY AERODROME. 115 



Everytliin«»- coniu'ctt'd with tli(> work wns cxpcditc'd m^ imicli as 

 possible with the cxpcclatioii of Iumii"; al)l(' to have tlu' lirst trial 

 flight before the close of iSDi), and time and money ha<l been spent 

 on the aerodrome, which was ready, except for its engine, when the. 

 time for the delivery of this an-ived. Hnt now the bnilder proved 

 nnable to complete his contract, and, after months of delay, it was 

 necessary to decrease the force at work on the machine proper and 

 its launching appliances until some assurance could be had of the 

 flnal success of the engine. During the spring and summer of 1899. 

 while these delays were being experienced in procuring suitable 

 engines, former experiments on superposed wing surfaces were con- 

 tinued, time was found for overhauling the two steam-driven models 

 which had been used in 1896, and the small house boat was rebuilt 

 so that further tests of these small machines might be made in order 

 to study the effect of various changes in the balancing and the 

 steering, equilibrium preserving and sustaining appliances, and the 

 months of June. July, and a portion of August were spent in actual 

 tests of these machines in free flight. 



A new launching apparatus following the general plan of the 

 former overhead one, but w4th the track underneath it, Avas built 

 for the models, and it was used most successfully in these experi- 

 ments, more than a dozen flights in succession being made with it, 

 while in every case it Avorked without delay or accident. As soon 

 as these tests with the models on this underneath launching apparatus 

 were completed, that for the large machine was built as an exact 

 duplicate, except for the enlargement, and w^ith some natural con- 

 fidence that what had Avorked so perfectly on a small scale Avould 

 Avork fairly on a large one. 



It AA^as recognized from the A^ery beginning that it Avould be desir- 

 able in a large machine to use " superposed " sustaining surfaces 

 (that is, Avith one Aving aboA'e another) on account of their supe- 

 riority so far as the relation of strength to Aveight is concerned, 

 and from their independence of guy Aviring; and tAvo sets of 

 superposed sustaining surfaces of different patterns Avere built and 

 experimented Avith in the early tests. These surfaces proA^ed, on the 

 Avhole, inferior in lifting poAver, though among comjoensating ad- 

 vantages are the strength of a "" bridge " construction which dis- 

 lienses Avith guy Avires coming up from behnv, Avhicli, in fact, later 

 Avere the cause of disaster in the launching. 



It was finally decided to folloAv what experiment had shoAvn to be 

 successful, and to construct the sustaining surfaces for the large 

 machine after the " single-tier " plan. This proA^ed to be no easy 

 task, since in the construction of the surfaces for the small machines 

 tlie main and cross ribs of the framework had been made solid, and, 

 after steaming, bent and dried to the proper curvature, Avhile it Avas 



