FLYING MACHINE 



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FLYING MACHINE 



of wind lifts one end of the biplane, they 

 warp, or bend, the other end to increase its 

 angle with the ground, and as a result, its lift- 

 ing power. The machine is turned from right 

 to left, like a boat, by a vertical rudder, and 

 it is made to climb or descend by a horizontal 

 rudder, called the elevator. Before 1910 the 

 elevator in Wright machines was in front. 



Glenn Curtiss, whose first biplane was built 

 in 1908, invented a substitute for the Wright 

 wing-warping method of maintaining side-to- 

 side balance. His machines are equipped with 

 ailerons, or winglets, which are simply horizon- 

 tal rudders set between the two planes, one at 

 each side. 



Monoplanes are the most birdlike of all fly- 

 ing machines. In a biplane the planes usually 

 seem to be the main part, and the elevator and 



boats equally serviceable in this respect. The 

 Sperry automatic pilot and similar devices now 

 take from the airman the responsibility of 

 maintaining the stability of his machine in the 

 varying currents of air and leave him little to 

 do but steer. In the larger machines the me- 

 chanic may walk about inspecting and adjust- 

 ing his engines, and the passengers are com- 

 fortably seated in a cockpit, or in a cabin. 



Dirigible Balloons. Back in the eighteenth 

 century, when men first ascended in balloons, 

 they thought they could row their air-boats. 

 They quickly abandoned this idea, for the very 

 lightness of a balloon in proportion to the sur- 

 face exposed puts it at the mercy of every 

 current of air. But in 1852 Henri Giffard 

 equipped a cigar-shaped balloon with a very 

 light steam engine and succeeded in attaining 



A 500-FOOT ZEPPELIN IN THE AIR 



rudders only attachments. In a monoplane, on 

 the other hand, there is a well-defined body, 

 called the fuselage, extending from front to 

 back, and the single plane on each side resem- 

 bles a bird's wing. All monoplanes are trac- 

 tors; that is, their propellers are in front and 

 pull rather than push. Their stability is se- 

 cured exactly as is that of biplanes. In recent 

 years tractor biplanes have come into favor, 

 and when built with a solid fuselage, they re- 

 semble monoplanes. 



Comfort and Safety. There is less reason 

 now to predict that aeroplanes will never come 

 into every-day use than there was at the be- 

 ginning of the century to assert that man 

 would never fly at all. European aviators early 

 demonstrated that if mounted on wheels fly- 

 ing machines could rise in the air from any 

 reasonably smooth ground without the aid of 

 special launching apparatus, and Curtiss, fol- 

 lowing in the steps of others, has made flying 



a speed of nearly seven miles an hour. Since 

 then dirigible, or direct-able, balloons have 

 steadily increased in speed, strength and dirigi- 

 bility, and now are able to travel long dis- 

 tances and stem heavy winds. 



There are two distinct types of dirigibles, 

 the rigid and the non-rigid. There is also a 

 semi-rigid type, which, as its name indicates, is 

 a compromise. The most famous of all air- 

 ships, the German Zeppelins, are rigid, and 

 their inventor, Count Zeppelin, is the origina- 

 tor of the type. The gas bag of a Zeppelin is 

 stretched over a strong frame of aluminum, 

 and inside of it there are partitions of alu- 

 minum which divide it into gas-tight compart- 

 ments, any one of which may be punctured 

 without causing the airship to fall. The neces- 

 sities of the War of the Nations brought great 

 improvements and enlargements in the Zeppe- 

 lins. By the close of 1916 these huge ships 

 were 500 feet in length, and nearly fifty feet 



