=207. Early Attempts to Fly.= To sail through the air as birds do is an
ambition that has dazzled men since ancient times. The Greek myths tell
us of Phaeton who drove the horses of the sun, and of Icarus who flew
too near the sun with his wings of feathers and wax.
[Sidenote: =Studying birds=]
To learn how to fly men studied the wings of huge birds living millions
of years ago, made careful mathematical reckonings about them, and
then made themselves wings of feathers or skin. But with these wings
they could only glide to earth from high towers or cliffs. One useful
thing they learned from this study. They found that the wing of a bird
is bent as you bend a long piece of paper if you hold it by opposite
corners and start to twist it. This is called the principle of the
screw, and is now used in making the propeller blades of airplanes.
[Illustration: WILBUR WRIGHT]
=208. The First Airplanes.= Early airplanes, airplane models and
"gliders" were made in the queerest, most outlandish shapes imaginable.
They had from one to five or more planes, arranged at almost every
possible angle. Some looked like a row of box kites, some like
dragons, and some like a collection of old fashioned windmill wheels
all fastened together.
It was only a little while ago that men were working with these strange
models, for it was only about ten years before the World War that a
successful airplane flight was first made.
[Illustration: ORVILLE WRIGHT]
The invention of the balloon came late in the history of flying. Two
sons of a French paper manufacturer probably made the first balloon.
They filled a large bag with hot air from a bonfire, and found that it
rose and sailed away.
Early balloons were carried through the air by wind currents, and could
not be guided. Their passengers were often blown out to sea and drowned.
[Sidenote: =Zeppelins=]
A German, Count Zeppelin, invented a balloon called a dirigible,
because it could be directed through the air. The Germans named these
large cigar-shaped balloons "zeppelins," after their inventor.
Dirigibles are now built more than two blocks long, about the length
of the largest battleships. They can lift heavy loads, but are very
expensive and very easily broken, and require huge sheds or houses to
shelter them.
[Sidenote: =First successful flight=]
An airship properly means a dirigible, while an airplane is a
heavier-than-air machine. The first successful flight of any length in
an airplane that could be directed was made by Wilbur Wright in 1903,
at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It was also the first time an airplane
had been driven by a gasoline engine.
[Sidenote: =Did bicycle repairing=]
=209. The Wright Brothers.= Wilbur Wright was one of two brothers who
had long been working on the problem of a flying machine. He was born
in 1867, and his brother Orville in 1871. Their father was a bishop
whose excellent library took the place of a university education for
his boys. Wilbur and Orville studied especially works on physics,
mathematics, and engineering. They earned their living by making
and repairing bicycles. But they spent much time experimenting with
different kinds of gliders. They also studied the action of the
atmosphere. Aërostatics, or the science of the air, is a very difficult
and important part of flying.
[Sidenote: =Flights by airplane models=]
Before Wilbur Wright's success in 1903 progress of various kinds had
been made. Fairly long flights with gliders had been made in different
countries. Two Americans, Langley and Hiram Maxim, had worked out
models driven by steam. Langley's had flown half a mile over the
Potomac, and Maxim's, though not allowed to fly freely, was strong
enough to carry a man.
[Illustration: A DIRIGIBLE BALLOON]
The Wright brothers were wise in employing a gasoline motor. A steam
engine, with its large boilers, was of course much heavier. They had
a rudder in the tail of their machine, but they also invented a new
method of steering. By "warping" or bending the planes, a monoplane,
with its one set of wings could keep its balance as well as a biplane,
which has two.
[Illustration: AN EARLY WRIGHT AIRPLANE]
After Wilbur Wright's first flight in 1903 several Frenchmen made
successful flights. But in 1908 Wilbur Wright went to France and broke
the records of all the French flyers by the unparalleled feat of
remaining in the air for more than two hours.
[Illustration: A MONOPLANE
_From a photograph of a Bleriot Monoplane in "Flying," New York_]
[Sidenote: =Air records=]
Now the airplane can do all kinds of fantastic tricks. Aviators "loop
the loop" dozens of times, and move in any direction through the air
at will. They can rise in the air thirty-six thousand feet, and can
fly at the rate of three miles a minute. In 1907 Orville Wright made
the first record flight of an hour. All this has been accomplished
in scarcely more than a dozen years since then. Flying developed
especially rapidly during the World War. Airplanes were used to spy out
the enemy's defenses, to direct gunfire, to drop bombs, to shoot down
soldiers, and to hunt submarines. The daring and brilliant fighting of
airmen in the World War makes a story more breathless than that of any
novel. Incidents like landing with burning planes or with planes partly
stripped of their canvas were not uncommon for these fighters of the
air.
[Illustration: A HYDROPLANE]
[Sidenote: =Bombing machines=]
One type of airplane was used for fighting and another heavier type for
bombing. Air bombing is now so accurate that in the future it may be
useless to build super-dreadnaughts and large battleships.
=210. Peace Time Uses of the Airplane.= During times of peace airplanes
are useful in exploring and for carrying passengers and light freight.
Airplanes scarcely more expensive than the earlier automobiles can now
be bought.
[Sidenote: =Airplanes carry the mail=]
Airplanes in this country are chiefly used for carrying mail. "The mail
must fly" is the slogan of the mailmen of the air, and in storm or
fog--even in the face of a tornado--it has gone.
In May, 1919, a hydroplane belonging to the United States navy made
the first trip across the ocean. A hydroplane is an airplane having a
boat-like body so that it is able to alight on or rise from the water.
[Sidenote: =Transatlantic flights=]
In July a British dirigible flew across with its crew. A few weeks
earlier a British plane flew from continent to continent in less than
sixteen hours. It took Columbus seventy days to make his crossing.