350 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1959 
It is curious that this arrangement should have persisted in this 
country, when in France the great early pioneers, Bleriot and others, 
from the start had tractor-type monoplanes, although some other 
earlier constructors like Farman and Voisin also used pushers. But 
the tractor type in France was more numerous, in the Santos- Dumont 
“Demoiselle,” the Nieuport, and the Breguet, Ferber, and Goupy 
biplanes. 
In this country, it was not until 1913 that we saw the Burgess tractor 
with Renault motor, the Glenn Martin Model TT, and the Curtiss N 
which later became the ubiquitous J N-4 (the Curtiss Jenny). So, as 
far as the general industry is concerned, we see that we here lagged 4 
or 5 years behind in adopting the tractor-type airplane which was to 
become practically universal as a landplane, even when later developed 
into multimotor models. 
ENCLOSED BODIES 
Safety in crashes was naturally the outstanding reason for the 
adoption of the tractor type. In the early planes, when they were in 
the 40-mile-per-hour category, the seats were not enclosed. The advent 
of the fuselage with enclosed seating was stimulated, of course, by the 
use of the tractor engine. But it is remarkable to note that the obvious 
further streamlining and closing in of the fuselage lagged for a few 
years. Nieuport, in his remarkable and revolutionary little mono- 
plane of 1910 which swept the field in competitive performance, prac- 
tically started this vogue. But the enclosure of the aviators themselves 
in a cabin was very slow in coming, and it was not until some 10 or 15 
years later that the majority of the aviators, including the military, 
discovered that they need not have their heads out in the open air in 
order to fly, and permitted their definite prejudices against closed 
cabins to give way to the comforts that became immediately evident. 
HIGH-LIFT DEVICES 
Flaps and slots to slow down landing speeds, or rather to permit 
higher cruising speeds and heavier loads without too great a landing 
penalty, also lagged for a long time—much too long. Handley-Page 
and Lachmann in Europe and Orville Wright in this country were 
investigating these high-lift aids in the twenties. In fact, it is not 
generally known that Orville Wright in 1923 patented the split flap. 
By 1926 Handley-Page slots had been applied to the British “Moth” 
plane with great success, and the first such “Moth” to be imported to 
this country was brought in by the present writer and flown by him 
widely in the east. Still, a great many airplanes were being built, 
developed, and accepted with no thought of high-lift devices, although 
some work was being done, notably by Harlan Fowler, on these addi- 
tions to wing structures. Then, in 1929, was held the Guggenheim 
