THE CONQUEST OF THE AIR 91 



it really flew. Later he built several other models; one, a tri- 

 plane, was exhibited in London in 1868. 



About 1 88 1 Horatio Phillips built the first full-sized aeroplane. 

 He believed that many narrow planes would give greater lifting 

 power than one broad one, so he rigged fifty planes 22 feet long 

 and only i| inches wide on a frame so they looked like a large 

 Venetian blind. Each plane was curved from front to back as 

 Cayley had suggested, though the hump of the curve was not at 

 its center, but near the front edge, an improvement that Phillips 

 devised. This machine of Phillips was mounted on wheels that 

 ran on a track, and it was held down so it could not fly off and 

 wreck itself. It registered a lift of 72 pounds besides its own 

 weight. 



Sir Henry Maxim, of Maxim gun fame, was the next to build 

 an airship. It was a big biplane, 105 feet from tip to tip of its 

 wing planes. Its four engines each developed 180 horse-power. 

 They ran two wooden propellers, canvas-covered, that were 

 1 8 feet long. This machine had a small horizontal plane in 

 front that could be tilted up and so start the aeroplane on its 

 rise from the ground. It also had a vertical tail plane that was 

 movable and could serve as a rudder. Both these additions of 

 Maxim's were valuable contributions to the structure of the 

 aeroplane that have been retained, more or less modified, in later 

 types. This machine of Maxim's ran on a track also and was 

 held down by guide rails. It developed so much lifting power, 

 however, that it broke away, raised itself from the ground, 

 toppled over, and was wrecked. 



Clement Ader, a Frenchman, was working on the aeroplane 

 about this time. He built several machines with batlike wings, 

 the cloth cover stretched on bamboo and hollow wood-spar 

 frames. His propellers were four-bladed ones. His machine 

 ran on wheels on the ground and was free to rise. He called the 

 machine an avion. In 1890 it actually rose into the air, covering 

 about 50 yards. It was wrecked when it landed. The French 

 government gave him a generous grant to continue his experiments 



