WORKING WONDERS WITH A TOP 



nection. Moreover, it is possible to adjust this stabil- 

 izer in such a way that it will be automatically con- 

 nected and begin to operate on the horizontal rudder 

 in the event of the machine being suddenly tipped 

 abnormally by an air current, or in case of its being 

 headed into the air at a dangerously steep angle by 

 the aviator. It should be explained that the airman 

 at a great height often finds it difficult to determine 

 just how fast he is climbing, or whether indeed he is 

 climbing at all; and that there is always danger that 

 the machine may be headed upward at such an angle 

 as to lose all power of progression. In such a case 

 the entire aeroplane may slide backward in the air 

 when the aviator imagines himself to be rising, and 

 there is obvious danger that it may then pass alto- 

 gether out of control and plunge to the earth. The 

 gyroscope stabilizer is believed to prevent the danger 

 of such a disaster, as it will automatically correct the 

 mistake of an aviator who deflects the horizontal rud- 

 der at too great an angle. 



The observed efficiency of the mechanism that oper- 

 ates the wing-warping devices is comprehensible when 

 we reflect that the gyroscope instantly responds to the 

 slightest attempt to deflect its axis, whereas the hu- 

 man operator who in the case of the Curtiss ma- 

 chine manages the aillerons with the aid of wires at- 

 tached to straps about his shoulders has a compara- 

 tively blunt sense of equilibrium and hence does not 

 recognize or respond to the tipping of his craft until 

 it has reached a considerable angle. In an actual 

 flight, with a skilled aviator at the wheel, the aircraft 

 in a chopyy wind wabbled disagreeably despite the 



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