AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
September, 1911 
Knaterwitz, near Domreichenbach, as it appears from a height of several hundred feet 
upon wheels or skids or both. In such machines as the 
Farman and Wright biplanes, the wheels are elastically 
mounted so that they may yield and permit the skids to 
perform their function. 
A Wright or a Farman biplane lands on its skids 
and stops within a few feet. On the other hand, a 
Curtiss biplane, which has no skids and which lands 
upon the same wheels used in starting, often runs for a con- 
siderable distance before it expends its momentum. It is 
customary to use brakes on such a machine in order to arrest 
its motion. 
This problem of alighting and starting has always per- 
plexed the inventor of flying machines. The late Professor 
S. P. Langley adopted the plan of launching his successful 
models from the top of a houseboat, which could be turned 
in any direction so as to face the wind. The model 
was placed upon a car which fell down at the end of its 
travel, and thus released the machine for its free flight. 
The Wright brothers at first employed a similar device, con- 
sisting of a single starting rail, a car which carried the aero- 
plane and which ran upon the rail, and a system of ropes and 
falling weights to jerk the car suddenly forward. With that 
arrangement the Wright brothers were able to fly with a 
preliminary run of perhaps thirty or forty feet. Such special 
starting devices, however, are objectionable, because the 
machine must always return to them after it alights. For 
that reason, we find that all the aeroplanes of today, even 
the Wright biplanes, make their initial run on small wheels, 
fitted with pneumatic tires. 
From this brief exposition of the necessity of making an 
initial run before leaping into the air, and of coming down 
at rather high speed, it follows that if flying is to become 
as popular as automobiling, every suburbanite and every 
city dweller who owns a machine must have sufficient starting 
and alighting area at his disposal. Ground in the vicinity 
of our large cities is not cheap. Most suburbanites must 
content themselves with a quarter of an acre and less, about 
enough for a house of moderate size and a small lawn. It 
is obvious, therefore, that flying-machine clubs must be or- 
ganized, with grounds sufficiently spacious to permit the 
starting and alighting of machines. Perhaps in a few years 
we may find existing country clubs building hangars for 
flying machines to accommodate their members. ‘The well- 
kept, level swards of these clubs would certainly serve ad- 
mirably the aviator’s purposes. 
The flying machine problem is more difficult of solution 
when we consider the limitations of the city. With the 
exception of the public parks, which can hardly be used for 
any other purpose than that for which they were originally 
intended, there are no large areas which would serve the 
airman’s needs. Even if the streets and avenues were not 
already crowded with trafic, they would be found much 
too narrow for the use of an aeroplane about to take wing. 
Obviously, the aviator is limited to the house-tops—but not 
to house-tops with the round towers and gable roofs which 
at present lend variety to a city’s architecture which is suff- 
ciently monotonous as it is. The roof must be flat, and 
it must be large enough to permit the aviator to take his 
run. The ordinary house-top is manifestly inadequate. 
Probably the roofs of existing hotels and office buildings, 
and the roofs of special aeroplane hangars which will even- 
tually be constructed, will satisfy the needs of the airman. 
From an ordinary office building twenty stories in height, 
a machine could be launched with comparative ease, even 
though the roof might not be large. The machine could 
almost drop off like a bird, and with the air pressure created 
