FIRST EXPERIENCES WITH AN AEROPLANE
(AS DESCRIBED BY MR. GRAHAME-WHITE)
After a period of ballooning, which offers experience for an aviator
in the judging of heights and distances, and in growing accustomed to
the sensation of being in the air, I devoted a good deal of time and
attention--more indeed at the time, and in view of my other
responsibilities, than I could reasonably spare--to a study of the
theory of aeroplane construction, and to the making of models. This
was prior to 1909; Bleriot had not yet flown the Channel in his
monoplane. But when he did I put models aside, and determined to buy
an aeroplane and learn to fly.
At the end of August, 1909, so that I might inspect the various
aeroplanes that were then available, and they were few enough, I went
to Rheims, in France, and attended the first flying meeting the world
had seen. At the aerodrome I met and talked with the great pioneers:
with Bleriot, fresh from his cross-Channel triumph; with Levavasseur,
the designer of the beautiful but ill-fated Antoinette monoplane,
which had, through engine failure, let Hubert Latham twice into the
Channel during his attempts to make the crossing; with Henry Farman
who, fitting one of the first Gnome motors to a biplane of his own
construction, flew for more than three hours at Rheims, and created a
world's record; and also with M. Voisin, whose biplane was then being
flown by a number of pilots.
Finally, after careful consideration, I made a contract with M.
Bleriot to purchase from him, at the end of the meeting, a monoplane
of a type that appeared first at Rheims, and of which there was not
another model then in existence. This machine differed considerably
from the one with which M. Bleriot had flown the Channel. His
cross-Channel monoplane was a single-seated craft fitted with an
air-cooled motor of about 25 h.p. The machine I agreed to buy at
Rheims, and which was known as Bleriot No. XII., would carry two
people, pilot and passenger, while it had an 8-cylinder water-cooled
motor developing 60 h.p.--an exceptional power in those days. The
position of the occupants, as they sat in the machine, differed from
the arrangement in the cross-Channel Bleriot. In the latter the pilot
sat in a hull placed between the planes, and with his head and
shoulders above them. But in this new and larger machine the pilot and
passenger sat in seats which were placed below the planes.
The craft was, as a matter of fact, an experiment, being built almost
purely for speed; hence its powerful motor. M. Bleriot's idea, in
constructing it, was to have a machine with which he might win the
Gordon-Bennett international speed race at Rheims. But this hope he
did not realise; nor did I obtain delivery of the craft I desired.
Bleriot, flying alone in this big monoplane, started in a speed flight
for the Gordon-Bennett; but he was only a quarter of the way round the
course, on his second lap, when the machine was seen to break suddenly
into flames and crash to the ground from a height of 100 feet. It was
wrecked entirely, but Bleriot was fortunate enough to escape with
nothing worse than burns about the face and hands, and a general
shock. The cause of the accident was that an indiarubber tube, fixed
temporarily to carry petrol from the tank to the carburettor, had been
eaten through and had permitted petrol to leak out, and to ignite, on
the hot exhaust pipes of the motor.
The destruction of this monoplane was, to me, a great disappointment.
No other machine of the type was in existence, and I learned that it
would take three months to build one. M. Bleriot promised, however, to
put a machine in hand at once; and, as a special concession, I
obtained permission to go daily to the Bleriot factory and superintend
the construction of my own machine. This I did for a full period of
three months, working daily from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and gaining some
valuable knowledge as to aeroplane construction.
On November 6, 1909, after delays which had tried my patience sorely,
I obtained delivery of the new machine--a replica of the craft that
had been destroyed at Rheims. It was too late that day to begin any
trials, so I and a friend who was with me arranged with M. Bleriot's
mechanics that we would be at Issy-les-Moulineaux early next morning,
and there put the craft through its preliminary tests. I can remember
we went to bed early, but sleep was impossible; we were both too
excited at the prospect that lay before us. So presently we got
up--this was at 2 a.m.--and drove out to the flying ground.
It was pitch dark when we arrived at the aerodrome, but the morning
promised to be favourable. Foggy it was; but there was no wind, and
the fog seemed likely to clear. We roused the caretaker, and, after
lengthy explanations and considerable monetary persuasion, induced him
to open the shed and allow us to prepare the machine for its first
flight. Then we waited for the mechanics and the first rays of dawn.
We felt a desire to get the big engine started up, but had been warned
of the risk of doing this without the help of mechanics. Time passed
and still the mechanics did not come. At last, there being now
sufficient light, we tied the aeroplane with ropes to a fence, so as
to prevent its leaping forward, and then started up the motor by
ourselves. I swung the nine-foot propeller--the only way of starting
the engine; and at the first quarter-turn the motor began to fire.
Then, as is quite usual, there was an incident that had been
unforeseen in our excitement. We had forgotten to take up the slack of
the rope; and the consequence was that, as the engine started, the
machine gave a bound forward that was sufficient to knock me down. But
I was unhurt, and picked myself up quickly. Then I hurried round to
the driving seat and took my place at the control levers, motioning to
my friend, who was looking after the ropes, to cast these loose and
jump into the seat beside me. This was easier said than done. Directly
he released the ropes the machine began to move across the ground,
gathering speed very quickly; but he managed somehow, before the
machine was running too fast, to scramble into the seat beside me.
Off we started across the aerodrome, the monoplane gaining a speed of
40 or 50 miles an hour. I did not attempt to rise from the ground,
feeling it very necessary at first to grow familiar with the controls.
So we sped along the ground for a distance of about a mile. Then, on
nearing the far end, I slowed down the motor and our speed dropped to
about 20 miles an hour. I wanted to turn the machine round on the
ground and run back again towards our starting point. But such a
manoeuvre, particularly for the novice, is far from easy. As the speed
of the machine is reduced, the pressure of air on the rudder is
lessened and so it loses its efficiency--in the same way that a ship
is difficult to steer when she begins to lose way. We were faced also
by another and a graver difficulty. Confused by the fog, which still
hung over the aerodrome, I had misjudged our position. We found we
were much nearer the end of the ground than I had imagined. In front
of us there loomed suddenly a boundary wall, against which it seemed
probable we should dash ourselves. There were no brakes on the machine;
no way of checking it from the driving seat. Our position seemed
critical.
It was now that I shouted to my friend, telling him to jump out of the
machine as best he could, and catch hold of the wooden framework
behind the planes, allowing the machine to drag him along the ground,
and so using the weight of his body as a brake. This, with great
dexterity, he managed to do, and we came to a standstill not more than
a foot or so from the wall. This proved a chastening experience; we
pictured our aeroplane dashed against the wall, and reduced to a mass
of wreckage. Very cautiously we lifted round the tail of the machine.
It was impossible to switch off the motor and have a rest, because, if
we had stopped it, we should not have been able to start it again
without our gear, which was away on the other side of the ground.
Now, having got the machine into position for a return trip across the
aerodrome, I accelerated the engine, and we started off back. For
about twenty minutes, without further incident, we ran to and fro; and
now I felt that I had the machine well in control--on the ground at
any rate. And so the next thing was to rise from the ground into the
air. I told my friend my intention, calling to him above the noise of
the motor; and I admired him for the calm way in which he received my
news. I should not have been surprised if he had demanded that I
should slow up the machine and let him scramble out. In those days it
was thought dangerous to go up even with a skilled and more or less
experienced pilot. How much greater, therefore, must have seemed the
risk of making a trial flight with me--a complete novice in the
control of a machine. But my friend nodded and sat still in his seat.
So I accelerated the motor and raised very slightly our rear elevating
plane. And then we felt we were off the ground! There was no longer
any sensation of our contact with the earth--no jolting, no vibration.
In a moment or so, it seemed, the monoplane was passing through the
air at a height of about 30 feet. This, to our inexperienced eyes,
appeared a very great altitude; and I made up my mind at once to
descend. This manoeuvre, that of making contact with the ground after
a flight, I had been told was the most difficult of all. It is not
surprising that this should be so. Our speed through the air was, at
the moment, about 50 miles an hour; and to bring a machine to the
ground when it is moving so fast, without a violent shock or jar, is a
manoeuvre needing considerable judgment. But, remembering that the
main thing was to handle the control lever gently, I managed to get
back again to the aerodrome without accident; and after this we turned
the machine round again and made another flight.
The fog had cleared by now, and we were surprised to see a number of
people running across the ground towards us. First there came the
tardy mechanics; and with them were a number of reporters and
photographers representing the Paris newspapers. These latter
had--though I only found this out afterwards--been brought by the
mechanics in the expectation of being able to record, with their
notebooks and cameras, some catastrophe in which we were expected to
play the leading parts. Knowing the powerful type of monoplane I had
acquired, a machine not suited for a novice, the mechanics had felt
sure some disaster would overtake me. But, as it happened, their
anticipations were not fulfilled. The journalists and photographers
did not, however, have a fruitless journey. Though there was nothing
gruesome to chronicle, they found ample material, when they learned of
them, in the early morning adventures of myself and my friend with
this 60 h.p. monoplane. Next day, in fact, our exploits were given
prominence in the newspapers, and I received a number of
congratulatory telegrams; not forgetting one of a slightly different
character which came from M. Bleriot. He was flying at the time in
Vienna, and he warned me of the dangers of such boldness as I had
displayed--having regard to the speed and power of my machine--and
pleaded with me for a greater caution.