Hitherto we have traced the gradual development of the balloon right
from the early days of aeronautics, when the brothers Montgolfier
constructed their hot-air balloon, down to the most modern dirigible.
It is now our purpose, in this and subsequent chapters, to follow the
course of the pioneers of aviation.
It must not be supposed that the invention of the steerable balloon
was greatly in advance of that of the heavier-than-air machine. Indeed,
developments in both the dirigible airship and the aeroplane have taken
place side by side. In some cases men like Santos Dumont have given
earnest attention to both forms of air-craft, and produced practical
results with both. Thus, after the famous Brazilian aeronaut had won
the Deutsch prize for a flight in an air-ship round the Eiffel tower, he
immediately set to work to construct an aeroplane which he subsequently
piloted at Bagatelle and was awarded the first "Deutsch prize" for
aviation.
It is generally agreed that the undoubted inventor of the aeroplane,
practically in the form in which it now appears, was an English
engineer, Sir George Cayley. Just over a hundred years ago this clever
Englishman worked out complete plans for an aeroplane, which in many
vital respects embodied the principal parts of the monoplane as it
exists to-day.
There were wings which were inclined so that they formed a lifting
plane; moreover, the wings were curved, or "cambered", similar to the
wing of a bird, and, as we shall see in a later chapter, this curve is
one of the salient features of the plane of a modern heavier-than-air
machine. Sir George also advocated the screw propeller worked by some
form of "explosion" motor, which at that time had not arrived. Indeed,
if there had been a motor available it is quite possible that England
would have led the way in aviation. But, unfortunately, owing to the
absence of a powerful motor engine, Sir George's ideas could not be
practically carried out till nearly a century later, and then Englishmen
were forestalled by the Wright brothers, of America, as well as by
several French inventors.
The distinguished French writer, Alphonse Berget, in his book, The
Conquest of the Air, pays a striking tribute to our English inventor,
and this, coming from a gentleman who is writing from a French point
of view, makes the praise of great value. In alluding to Sir George, M.
Berget says: "The inventor, the incontestable forerunner of aviation,
was an Englishman, Sir George Cayley, and it was in 1809 that he
described his project in detail in Nicholson's Journal.... His idea
embodied 'everything'--the wings forming an oblique sail, the empennage,
the spindle forms to diminish resistance, the screw-propeller, the
'explosion' motor,... he even described a means of securing automatic
stability. Is not all that marvellous, and does it not constitute a
complete specification for everything in aviation?
"Thus it is necessary to inscribe the name of Sir George Cayley in
letters of gold, in the first page of the aeroplane's history. Besides,
the learned Englishman did not confine himself to 'drawing-paper':
he built the first apparatus (without a motor) which gave him results
highly promising. Then he built a second machine, this time with a
motor, but unfortunately during the trials it was smashed to pieces."
But were these ideas of any practical value? How is it that he did not
succeed in flying, if he had most of the component parts of an aeroplane
as we know it to-day?
The answer to the second question is that Sir George did not fly, simply
because there was no light petrol motor in existence; the crude motors
in use were far too heavy, in proportion to the power developed, for
service in a flying machine. It was recognized, not only by Sir George,
but by many other English engineers in the first half of the nineteenth
century, that as soon as a sufficiently powerful and light engine did
appear, then half the battle of the conquest of the air would be won.
But his prophetic voice was of the utmost assistance to such inventors
as Santos Dumont, the Wright brothers, M. Bleriot, and others now
world-famed. It is quite safe to assume that they gave serious attention
to the views held by Sir George, which were given to the world at
large in a number of highly-interesting lectures and magazine articles.
"Ideas" are the very foundation-stones of invention--if we may be
allowed the figure of speech--and Englishmen are proud, and rightly
proud, to number within their ranks the original inventor of the
heavier-than-air machine.