6o2 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[December, 1906. 



The 



Latest Developments 

 in Aerial Navigation. 



Hy Majok HADii.\-l(j\\ kll. 

 Diking the last month or so several important ad- 

 \ances have been made towards the conquest of the 

 air, and the subject has been much ''boomed" in the 

 daily J^ress. An important lecture dealing with the 

 matter was gi\en on November 15. bv Colonel 

 I'ullerton, R.H., before the Royal United Service 

 Institution. 



Santos Dumont has, as usual, besn well to the fore, 

 and has attracted the attention of the multitude. But 

 it ni.i\ 111' said at once that, as on pre\ious occasions, 



chronicling was the trial of M. Ader's apparatus, in 

 J 897, which is said to have risen with its inventor 

 aboard, and travelled for some yards through the air. 

 The third ascent of a man-carrying machine was in 

 1901, when Herr Krcs.s rose, with a system of aero- 

 planes, from the surface of a lake, but fell back into it. 



These efforts can, however, hardly be considered as 

 really successful flights, but they clearly prove that a 

 machine on the aeroplane principle, if propelled by suffi- 

 ciently powerful propellers, can rise off the ground and 

 lift human beings with it. This is an important point, 

 since many writers have cast doubt on the possibility of 

 Ijeing able to accomplish even this much. 



Stability while progressing through the air is another 

 matter altogether. Experiments with models prove it 

 to be a problem involving many complications and diffi- 

 culties. It is, at present, very doubtful if M. Santos 

 Dumont has solved to any great extent this problem. 



His machine has on each occasion fallen hcavilv to 



Zeppelin Airship— The Bcws. 



his exploits have been glorified quite beyond their real 

 significance. Many of the papers have hailed this 

 inventor as the first man to fly, ignoring the many at- 

 tempts that have hitherto been made with almost as 

 much success, and quite forgetting the very brilliant 

 achievements of the Brothers Wright, who have far 

 surpassed anything that Santos Dumont, up to the time 

 of writing, has accomplished. It may, perhaps, be of 

 interest to briefly recapitulate the known occasions on 

 which men have l>een rai.sed off the ground by machines 

 of the " heavier-than-air " type. Apart from gliding 

 machines, which are not intended to rise bv any inherent 

 power, there are three machines that we know of, be- 

 sides those mentioned, that are supposed to have risen 

 off the ground, lifting their entire weight. The first is 

 that of Sir Hiram Maxim. In 1894, this huge machine 

 was travelling along its railway track at a rate of some 

 40 miles an hour, when it broke loose, and made some- 

 thing of a jump through the air before falling to the 

 ground. W'c need not now- re-open the discussion as to 

 whether or not this can be considered as a true flight. 

 For the moment all we need be concerned with is as to 

 whether a machine carrying a man or men has risen 

 off the ground. Later on we will draw the distinction 

 between this and true flight. The next event worth 



The Main Framework. 



the ground, after but a short flight. We are not now- 

 considering the future, but only what has actually been 

 done, for in all probability this energetic inventor will 

 bit by bit improve his apparatus so as to overcome any 

 tendency it may have to upset. Still, so far, he has 

 not done more than to improve slightly on the experi- 

 ments referred to. This machine, it may be as well to 

 mention, consists of two superposed aeroplanes, slightly 

 concave on the under side, 39 feet across, and 1 1 feet 

 wide, being 7 feet apart, and divided into compartments 

 by six vertical divisions. These planes are placed at a 

 slight diedral angle, and the area is reckoned as 86i 

 square feet. From the front of the lower plane ex- 

 tends a long, box-like tube, supporting a box to act as 

 rudder. A 5C)-horse power .Antoinette motor is now 

 used, replacing an older one of 24-horse power. This 

 rotates a single two-bladed screw propeller, six feet in 

 diameter, in rear of the centre. The propeller is con- 

 nected direct to the motor shaft, which turns it at a rate 

 of 1,500 revolutions per minute, and is said to give a 

 thrust of 330 lbs. The total weight lifted is put at 

 650 lbs. 



While public interest is, for the moment, absorbed 

 in the thought of the attainment of flight on the hea\ier- 

 than-air principle, two very marked advances have been 



