14 Wilde, On Aerial Locomotion. 



being furnished by the reaction of aerial screws actuated 

 by a motor of some kind. 



36. Excepting the remarkable experiment made by 

 Mr. Hiram S. Maxim, and excluding those which, like 

 the unfortunate Lilienthal's, depend on the action of the 

 wind for their support, no aeroplanes have been constructed 

 on a scale sufficient to raise the weight of a man. 



^~^j. The soaring or stationary aeroplane fails con- 

 spicuously in all the criteria above laid down, as, first, a 

 suitable track, either natural or artificial, is required to 

 enable the machine to acquire the necessary horizontal 

 velocity to raise itself from the ground ; secondly, the 

 machine cannot descend upon the place from which it 

 started, or upon any other except within wide areas ; 

 thirdly, as the sustaining power of the aeroplane is 

 dependent on its horizontal velocity, it cannot remain 

 poised in the air or descend vertically when required ; 

 fourthly, it contains no automatic principle of safety in 

 the event of the failure of the sustaining mechanism. 

 With these disadvantages, soaring aeroplanes can hardly 

 be entitled to rank as machines for navigating the air, but 

 partake more of the character of projectiles or aerial 

 torpedoes. Mr. Maxim is, I believe, disposed to view the 

 result of his recent magnificent experiment in this light, 

 and has even proposed that his machine should be used 

 as a military projectile. 



38. As none of the means that have so far been devised 

 is competent to solve the problem of aerial locomotion, 

 and, with one exception, the category of possible solutions 

 is now exhausted, it onl)' remains for me (in the absence 

 of the discovery of some new property of matter) to indi- 

 cate the remaining method by which the problem of avia- 



