A feature of the year 1909 was the success obtained with monoplanes
having only a single supporting surface, and it was on a machine of this
type that the Frenchman Bleriot on July 25th flew across the English
Channel from Calais to Dover in 31 minutes. Hubert Latham all but
performed the same feat on an Antoinette monoplane. The year saw
considerable increases in the periods for which aviators were able to
remain in the air, and Roger Sommer's flight of nearly 2-1/2 hours on
August 7th was surpassed by Henry Farman on November 3rd, when he
covered a distance estimated at 137-1/4 m. in 4 hr. 17 min. 53 sec. In
both these cases biplanes were employed. Successful aviation meetings
were held, among other places, at Reims, Juvisy, Doncaster and
Blackpool; and at Blackpool a daring flight was made in a wind of 40 m.
an hour by Latham. This aviator also proved the possibility of flying at
considerable altitudes by attaining on December 1st a height of over
1500 ft., but this record was far surpassed in the following January by
L. Paulhan, who on a biplane rose to a height of 1383 yds. at Los
Angeles. In the course of the year three aviators were killed--Lefevbre
and Ferber in September and Fernandez in December; and four men perished
in September by the destruction of the French airship "Republique," the
gas-bag of which was ripped open by a broken propeller. In January 1910
Delagrange was killed by the fracture of one of the wings of a monoplane
on which he was flying. On April 27th-28th, 1910, Paulhan successfully
flew from London to Manchester, with only one stop, within 24 hours, for
the _Daily Mail's_ L10,000 prize.
The progress made by all these experiments at aviation had naturally
created widespread interest, both as a matter of sport and also as
indicating a new departure in the possibilities of machines of war. And
in 1909 the British government appointed a scientific committee, with
Lord Rayleigh as chairman, as a consultative body for furthering the
development of the science in England.
The table below gives some details, approximately correct, of the
principal experiments made with flying machines up to 1908.
+-------+------------------+------+---------+---------+--------+-------+---------+----------+-------+-----------+
| | | Tip | | | Pounds | Speed | Maximum | | Horse-| Pounds |
| Year. | Experimenter. | to | Surface.| Weight. | per | per | Flight. | Motor. | power.| sustained |
| | | Tip. | | | sq. ft.| hour. | | | | per h.p. |
+-------+------------------+------+---------+---------+--------+-------+---------+----------+-------+-----------+
| | | Ft. | Sq. ft. | lb. | | Mls. | Ft. | | | |
| 1879 | Tatin | 6.2 | 7.5 | 3.85 | 0.51 | 18 | 100? |Compressed| 0.03 | 110? |
| | | | | | | | | air | | |
| 1885 \| | | | | | | | | | |
| 1889 /| Hargrave (No. 16)| 5.5 | 26.0 | 5.00 | 0.19 | 10 | 343 | " | 0.06 | 79 |
| 1893 | Phillips | 22.0 | 136.0 | 402.00 | 3.00 | 28 | 500? | Steam | 5.6 | 72? |
| 1894 | Maxim* | 50.0 | 4000.0 | 8000.00 | 2.5 | 36 | 300? | " |363.00 | 28 |
| 1896 | Langley | 12.0 | 70.0 | 30.00 | 0.43 | 24 | 4,000 | " | 1.00 | 30 |
| 1897 | Tatin and Richet | 21.0 | 86.0 | 72.00 | 0.83 | 40 | 460 | " | 1.33 | 55 |
| 1897 | Ader* | 49.0 | 270.0 | 1100.00 | 4.00 | 50? | 100? | " | 40.00 | 27 |
| 1895 | Lilienthal* | 23.0 | 151.0 | 220.00 | 1.46 | 23 | 1,200 | Gravity | 2.00 | 110 |
| 1896 | Pilcher* | 23.0 | 170.0 | 200.00 | 1.17 | 25 | 900 | " | 2.00 | 100 |
| 1896 | Chanute* | 16.0 | 135.0 | 178.00 | 1.31 | 22 | 360 | " | 2.00 | 89 |
| 1906 | S. Dumont* | 39 | 560 | 550 | 0.98 | 22.26 | 2,900 | Petrol | 50 | 23 |
| 1908 | W. Wright* | 41 | 650 | 1100 | 1.7 | 37 |295,000 | Petrol | 24 | 46 |
+-------+------------------+------+---------+---------+--------+-------+---------+----------+-------+-----------+
* The apparatus marked thus * carried a man or men.
REFERENCES.--Some of the books mentioned under AERONAUTICS contain
details of flying machines; see H.W.L. Moedebeck, _A Pocketbook of
Aeronautics_, trans. by W. Mansergh Varley (London, 1907); Sir Hiram
S. Maxim, _Artificial and Natural Flight_ (London, 1908); F.W.
Lanchester, _Aerodynamics_ and _Aerodonetics_ (London, 1907 and 1908);
C.C. Turner, _Aerial Navigation of To-day_ (London, 1909); also two
papers on "Aerial Navigation" read by Colonel G.O. Fullerton before
the Royal United Service Institution in 1892 and 1906; papers read by
Major B.F.S. Baden-Powell and E.S. Bruce before the Society of Arts,
London, in April 1907 and December 1908 respectively; Cantor Lectures
by F.W. Lanchester (Society of Arts, 1909); and the _Proceedings_ of
the Aeronautical Society (founded 1865), &c.