[Illustration: ORVILLE WRIGHT AT FORT MYER, VA., 1908]
[Illustration: THE FIRST BALLOON FLIGHT ACROSS THE BRITISH CHANNEL
More than a century before Blériot's feat, Blanchard crossed from
Dover to Calais]
The Wright biplane has already been shown (see pages 31, 37, 121, 122).
It was distinguished by the absence of a wheel frame or car and by the
wing-warping method of stabilizing. Later Wright machines have the
spring frame and wheels for self-starting. The best known aeroplane of
this design was built to meet specifications of the United States
Signal Corps issued in 1907. It was tried out during 1908 at Fort
Myer, Va., while one of the Wright brothers was breaking all records
in Europe: making over a hundred flights in all, first carrying a
passenger and attaining the then highest altitude (360 feet) and
greatest distance of flight (seventy-seven miles).
[Illustration: WRIGHT MOTOR. DIMENSIONS IN MILLIMETERS
(From Petit's _How to Build an Aeroplane_)]
The ownership of the Wrights in the wing-warping method of control is
still the subject of litigation. The French infringers, it is stated,
concede priority of application to the Wright firm, but maintain that
such publicity was given the device that it was in general use before
it was patented.
The Fort Myer machine had sails of forty feet spread, six and one-half
feet deep, with front elevating planes three by sixteen feet. It made
about forty miles per hour with two passengers. The apparatus was
specified to carry a passenger weight of 350 pounds, with fuel for a
125-mile flight. The main planes were six feet apart. The steering
rudder (double) was of planes one foot deep and nearly six feet high.
The four-cylinder-four-cycle, water-cooled motor developed twenty-five
horse-power at 1400 revolutions. The two propellers, eight and one-half
feet in diameter, made 400 revolutions.
The flight by Mr. Wilbur Wright from the Statue of Liberty to the tomb
of General Grant, in New York, 1909, and the exploits of his brother
in the same year, when a new altitude record of 1600 feet was made
and H.R.H. the Crown Prince of Germany was taken up as a passenger,
are only specimens of the later work done by these pioneers in aerial
navigation.
Like the Wrights, the Voisin firm from the beginning adhered firmly to
the biplane type of machine. The sketch gives dimensions of one of the
early cellular forms built for H. Farman (see illustration, page 147).
The metal screw makes about a thousand revolutions. The wings are of
india rubber sheeting on an ash frame, the whole frame and car body
being of wood, the latter covered with canvas and thirty inches wide by
ten feet long. The engine weighed 175 pounds. The whole weight of this
machine was nearly 1200 pounds; that built later for Delagrange was
brought under a thousand pounds. The ratio of weight to main surface in
the Farman aeroplane was about 2-3/4 to 1.
A modified cellular biplane also built for Farman had a main wing area
of 560 square feet, the planes being seventy-nine inches wide and only
fifty-nine inches apart. The tail was an open box, seventy-nine inches
wide and of about ten feet spread. The cellular partitions in this tail
were pivoted along the vertical front edges so as to serve as steering
rudders. The elevating rudder was in front. The total weight was about
the same as that of the first machine and the usual speed twenty-eight
miles per hour.
[Illustration: VOISIN-FARMAN BIPLANE]
Henry Farman has been flying publicly since 1907. He made the first
circular flight of one kilometer, and attained a speed of about a mile
a minute, in the year following. In 1909 he accomplished a trip of
nearly 150 miles, remaining four hours in the air. Farman was probably
the first man to ascend with two passengers.
[Illustration: THE CHAMPAGNE GRAND PRIZE WON BY HENRY FARMAN
80 Kilometers in 3 hours]
[Illustration: FARMAN'S FIRST BIPLANE AT ISSY-LES-MOULINEAUX
Returning to the Hangar After a Flight]
The _June Bug_, one of the first Curtiss machines, is shown below. This
was one of the lightest of biplanes, having a wing spread of forty-two
feet and an area of 370 square feet. The wings were transversely
arched, being furthest apart at the center: an arrangement which has
not been continued. It had a box tail, with a steering rudder of about
six square feet area, _above_ the tail. The horizontal rudder, in
front, had a surface of twenty square feet. Four triangular ailerons
were used for stability. The machine had a landing frame and wheels,
made about forty miles per hour, and weighed, in operation, 650 pounds.
[Illustration: THE "JUNE BUG"]
Mr. Curtiss first attained prominence in aviation circles by winning
the _Scientific American_ cup by his flight at the speed of fifty-seven
miles per hour, in 1908. In the following year he exhibited intricate
curved flights at Mineola, and circled Governor's Island in New York
harbor. In 1910 he made his famous flight from Albany to New York,
stopping _en route_, as prearranged. At Atlantic City he flew fifty
miles over salt water. A flight of seventy miles over Lake Erie was
accomplished in September of the same year, the return trip being
made the following day. On January 26, 1911, Curtiss repeatedly
ascended and descended, with the aid of hydroplanes, in San Diego bay,
California: perhaps one of the most important of recent achievements.
It is understood that Mr. Curtiss is now attempting to duplicate some
of these performances under the high-altitude conditions of Great
Salt Lake. According to press reports, he has been invited to give a
similar demonstration before the German naval authorities at Kiel.
[Illustration: CURTIS BIPLANE
(Photo by Levick, N.Y.)]
[Illustration: CURTISS' HYDRO-AEROPLANE AT SAN DIEGO GETTING UNDER WAY
(From the _Columbian Magazine_)]
The _aeroscaphe_ of Ravard was a machine designed to move either on
water or in air. It was an aeroplane with pontoons or floaters. The
supporting surface aggregated 400 square feet, and the gross weight
was about 1100 pounds. A fifty horse-power Gnome seven-cylinder motor
at 1200 revolutions drove two propellers of eight and ten and one-half
feet diameter respectively: the propellers being mounted one behind
the other on the same shaft.
[Illustration: FLYING OVER THE WATER AT FIFTY MILES PER HOUR
Curtiss at San Diego Bay
(From the _Columbian Magazine_)]
Ely's great shore-to-warship flight was made without the aid of the
pontoons which he carried. Ropes were stretched across the landing
platform, running over sheaves and made fast to heavy sand bags. As a
further precaution, a canvas barrier was stretched across the forward
end of the platform. The descent brought the machine to the platform at
a distance of forty feet from the upper end: grappling hooks hanging
from the framework of the aeroplane then caught the weighted ropes, and
the speed was checked (within about sixty feet) so gradually that "not
a wire or bolt of the biplane was injured."
[Illustration: BLÉRIOT-VOISIN CELLULAR BIPLANE WITH PONTOONS
Hauled by a Motor Boat]
[Illustration: LATHAM'S "ANTOINETTE"]
[Illustration: JAMES J. WARD AT LEWISTON FAIR, IDAHO
(Photo copyright 1910 by Burns)
Flying Machine Mfg. Co. Biplane (30 hp. Motor)]
[Illustration: MARCEL PENOT IN THE MOHAWK BIPLANE,
Mineola to Hicksville, L. I.
26 miles cross-country in 30 minutes (50 hp. Harriman Engine)]
Recent combinations of aeroplane and automobile, and aeroplane with
motor boat, have been exhibited. One of the latter devices is like any
monoplane, except that the lower part is a water-tight aluminum boat
body carrying three passengers. It is expected to start of itself from
the water and to fly at a low height like a flying fish at a speed of
about seventy-five miles per hour. Should anything go wrong, it is
capable of floating on the water.
In the San Diego Curtiss flights, the machine skimmed along the surface
of the bay, then rose to a height of a hundred feet, moved about two
miles through the air in a circular course, and finally alighted
close to its starting-point in the water. Turns were made in water as
well as in air, a speed of forty miles per hour being attained while
"skimming." The "hydroplanes" used are rigid flat surfaces which
utilize the pressure of the water for sustention, just as the main
wings utilize air pressure. On account of the great density of water,
no great amount of surface is required: but it must be so distributed
as to balance the machine. The use of pontoons makes it possible to
rest upon the water and to start from rest. A trip like Ely's could
be made without a landing platform, with this type of machine; the
aeroplane could either remain alongside the war vessel or be hoisted
aboard until ready to venture away again.
There are various other biplanes attracting public attention in this
country. In France the tendency is all toward the monoplane form, and
many of the "records" have, during the past couple of years, passed
from the former to the latter type of machine. The monoplane is simpler
and usually cheaper. The biplane may be designed for greater economy
in weight and power. Farman has lately experimented with the monoplane
type of machine: the large number of French designs in this class
discourages any attempt at complete description.
[Illustration: SANTOS-DUMONT'S "DEMOISELLE"]
The smallest of aeroplanes is the Santos-Dumont _Demoiselle_. The
original machine is said to have supported 260 pounds on 100 square
feet of area, making a speed of sixty miles per hour. Its proprietor
was the first aviator in Europe of the heavier-than-air class. After
having done pioneer work with dirigible balloons, he won the Deutsch
prize for a hundred meter aeroplane flight (the first outside of the
United States) in 1906; the speed being twenty-three miles per hour.
His first flight, of 400 feet, in a monoplane was made in 1907.
[Illustration: BLÉRIOT MONOPLANE]
The master of the monoplane has been Louis Blériot. Starting in
1907 with short flights in a Langley type of machine, he made his
celebrated cross-country run, and the first circling flights ever
achieved in a monoplane, the following year. On July 25, 1909, he
crossed the British Channel, thirty-two miles, in thirty-seven minutes.
[Illustration: LATHAM'S FALL INTO THE CHANNEL]
The Channel crossing has become a favorite feat. Mr. Latham, only two
days after Blériot, all but completed it in his Antoinette monoplane.
De Lesseps, in a Blériot machine, was more fortunate. Sopwith, last
year, won the de Forest prize of $20,000 by a flight of 174 miles
from England into Belgium. The ill-fated Rolls made the round trip
between England and France. Grace, contesting for the same prize,
reached Belgium, was driven back to Calais, started on the return
voyage, and vanished--all save some few doubtful relics lately found.
Moisant reached London from Paris--the first trip on record between
these cities without change of conveyance: and one which has just been
duplicated by Pierre Prier, who, on April 12, made the London to Paris
journey, 290 miles, in 236 minutes, without a stop. This does not,
however, make the record for a continuous flight: which was attained by
Tabuteau, who at Buc, on Dec. 30, 1910, flew around the aerodrome for
465 minutes at the speed of 48-1/2 miles per hour.
Other famous crossings include those of the Irish Sea, 52 miles, by
Loraine; Long Island Sound, 25 miles, by Harmon; and Lake Geneva, 40
miles, by Defaux.
It was just about a century ago that Cayley first described a soaring
machine, heavier than air, of a form remarkably similar to that of the
modern aeroplane. Aside from Henson's unsuccessful attempt to build
such a machine, in 1842, and Wenham's first gliding experiments with a
triplane in 1857, soaring flight made no real progress until Langley's
experiments. That investigator, with Maxim and others, ascertained
those laws of aerial sustention the application of which led to success
in 1903.
[Illustration: DE LESSEPS IN A BLÉRIOT CROSSING THE CHANNEL
(Photo by Levick, N.Y.)]
The eight years since have held the crowded hours of aviation. Before
this book is printed, it may be rendered obsolete by new developments.
The exploits of Paulhan, of R. E. Peltèrie since 1907, Bell's work with
his tetrahedral kites--all have been either stimulating or directly
fruitful. Delagrange began to break speed records in 1908. A year
later he attained a speed of fifty miles. The first woman to enjoy an
aeroplane voyage was Mme. Delagrange, in Turin, in 1908.
[Illustration: THE MAXIM AEROPLANE]
[Illustration: LANGLEY'S AEROPLANE (1896)
Steam driven]
The first flight in England by an English-built machine was made in
January, 1909. That year, Count de Lambert flew over Paris, and in
1910 Grahame-White circled his machine over the city of Boston. The
year 1910 surpassed all its predecessors in increasing the range and
control of aeroplanes; over 1500 ascents were made by Wright machines
alone; but 1911 promises to show even greater results. Three men made
cross-country flights from Belmont Park to the Statue of Liberty and
back, in New York;[B] at least five men attained altitudes exceeding
9,000 feet. Hamilton made the run from New York to Philadelphia and
return, in June. The unfortunate Chavez all but abolished the fames of
Hannibal and Napoleon by crossing the icy barrier of the Alps, from
Switzerland to Italy--in forty minutes!
[Illustration: ROBART MONOPLANE.]
Tabuteau, almost on New Year's eve, broke all distance records by a
flight of 363 miles in less than eight hours; while Barrier at Memphis
probably reached a speed of eighty-eight miles per hour (timing
unofficial). With the new year came reports of inconceivable speeds by
a machine skidding along the ice of Lake Erie; the successful receipt
by Willard and McCurdy of wireless messages from the earth to their
aeroplanes; and the proposal by the United States Signal Corps for the
use of flying machines for carrying Alaskan mails.
[Illustration: VINA MONOPLANE.]
McCurdy all but succeeded in his attempt to fly from Key West to
Havana, surpassing previous records by remaining aloft above salt water
while traveling eighty miles. Lieutenant Bague, in March, started from
Antibes, near Nice, for Corsica. After a 124-mile flight, breaking all
records for sea journeys by air, he reached the islet of Gorgona, near
Leghorn, Italy, landing on bad ground and badly damaging his machine.
The time of flight was 5-1/2 hours. Bellinger completed the 500-mile
"accommodation train" flight from Vincennes to Pau; Vedrine, on April
12, by making the same journey in 415 minutes of actual flying time,
won the Béarn prize of $4000; Say attained a speed of 74 miles per hour
in circular flights at Issy-les-Moulineaux. Aeroplane flights have been
made in Japan, India, Peru, and China.
One of the most spectacular of recent achievements is that of Renaux,
competing for the Michelin Grand Prize. A purse of $20,000 was offered
in 1909 by M. Michelin, the French tire manufacturer, for the first
successful flight from Paris to Clermont-Ferrand--260 miles--in less
than six hours. The prize was to stand for ten years. It was prescribed
that the aviator must, at the end of the journey, circle the tower of
the Cathedral and alight on the summit of the Puy de Dome--elevation
4500 feet--on a landing place measuring only 40 by 100 yards,
surrounded by broken and rugged ground and usually obscured by fog.
The flight was attempted last year by Weymann, who fell short of the
goal by only a few miles. Leon Morane met with a serious accident,
a little later, while attempting the trip with his brother as a
passenger. Renaux completed the journey with ease in his Farman
biplane, carrying a passenger, his time being 308 minutes.
This Michelin Grand Prize is not to be confused with the Michelin
Trophy of $4000 offered yearly for the longest flight in a closed
circuit.
Speeds have increased 50% during the past year; even with passengers,
machines have moved more than a mile a minute: average motor capacities
have been doubled or tripled. The French men and machines hold the
records for speed, duration, distance, and (perhaps) altitude. The
highest altitude claimed is probably that attained by Garros at Mexico
City, early this year--12,052 feet above sea level. The world's speed
record for a two-man flight appears to be that of Foulois and Parmalee,
made at Laredo, Texas, March 3, 1911: 106 miles, cross-country, in 127
minutes. Three-fourths of all flights made up to this time have been
made in France--a fair proportion, however, in American machines.