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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 30, 1908)
3 " THE SUNDAY OREGON! AN. PORTLAND. AUGUST 30. 1908. PP1M 1 T 3 mm & '.'VLLUk..., II lit r 3 hi' .-' -,. v o ! v.... x "v..-jy THE tK-KSLEV TXYXKG several hundred miles away with Its load of high explosives to attack a hos tile fleet nations will pause before hazarding their fleets against such terrible risks. And When the time comes when every nation has Its fleet Of aerial destroyers peace conferences will be compelled to declare an absolute edict against warfare. According: to my opinion the aero plane of the future will have numerous supporting surfaces, a narrow spread, great length, and will fly with high velocity. Everything will be spindle shaped that is to say,' of a form so fashioned as to offer little resistance to the wind. All the parts except the wings will be hidden from the wind; that is. to be a form somewhat like a winged torpedo, and passengers and pilot will be placed on a, sort of car with glass windows which offers very little re sistance to tne air. Most probably a multicellular design, with one, two or three series of cubes, will be adopted for the supporting sur faces, or elsa a series of wings In sep arate sets, arranged like the steps of a staircase, which .are fastened to the front, middle and rear. By Carl Dienstbach expert of the Aero Club of America. All present shortcomings are cer tain soon to be corrected. NEVER before have attempts to sub Jugate the atmosphere into as obedi ent a medium of travel as land and water been so numerous or earnest as at present. Many parts of the civilised world are witnessing demonstrations of air craft, and results have been obtained which are so fascinating In their promise of complete success that the consequent shortcomings, which are quite insepar able from pioneer efforts, are truly dis tressing. No more pathetic spectacle could be found In the annals of invention than the giant Zeppelin IV, the victim of an electrical storm after the most tri umphant voyage of a real ship of the air in history. The trivial lack of staytng qualities in its machinery is an everyday occurrence during the first few years of automobiling, and easy to remedy when once (feclosed by the actual endurance test. In New Tork recently a great crowd which had assembled to see the flight of the winged, birdlike machine with which Henri Farman had Just before flown In France for 20 minutes without any bal loon or gas, flying speedily In any chosen direction, had to renounce Its hope on ac count of a wind storm, which still was not violent enough to prevent small boats from sailing in perfect safety on the mater. The question of what the aircraft of the future, if it Is to be exempt from such mishaps and limitations, will prob ably be like becomes then one of the greatest interest at the present time. In the case of the gas-supported airships it can safely be said that the Zeppelin sys tem has by its last trip proved such qualities of dlrigibility, speed and, not the least, endurance' that its design will require no radical future change. Care ful scientific computations have recently established the fact that to transport comparatively heavy loads through the aif, power supported flight finds certain . well-defined limitations; while support by gas becomes the more efficient the larger the size of the vessel to contain It Only very bis; balloons can stand the wear and tear of everyday use. This question was settled long before the days of the "dirigible" by Ooddard'e giant captive balloon of the Paris Expo sition, which also disclosed superior carrying power and gas-retaining quali ties. For such large sizes It becomes, in the case of the dirigible, especially If a slender form and high speed Is the ob ject, simply a logical conclusion to en close the necessary stiffening frame In the bulk of the balloon Itself, apart from the consideration that the needed divid ing of the gas space Into numerous sep arate compartments Is so brought about In the most natural way, and that the gas bags themselves are thus most effi ciently protected from the strain of pro pulsion and the Influence of the sun or the weather. That the propellers and rudders may thus be carried where they fcava the best effect, and that cars and cabins, navigating devices, etc., may thus be arranged very conveniently and com fortably seem all but a natural' conse quence of the foundamental correctness of the system. THH last objection against the rigid construction. Its supposed Inability to mithetand without damage the shock of alighting on land, has been most bril liantly disproved by the unfortunate craft's last trip. Not even tearing from the moorings seems to have done imme diate harm. Moreover, it is well within the bounds of possibility to secure the rigid "Zeppelin" so firmly to the ground that no storm could hurt It Its great, length In proportion to its diameter Is very favorable to that end. There are 15 points where the frame Is especially strong namely, at the Intersection of Its longitudinal pieces with the 15 rings or hoops, which, through their strong Inside bracings, like the spokes of a bicycle wheel, divide the Interior of the hull into. 16 separate compartments. Fifteen strong light steel hawsers slung over the hull could, by means of eyelets, be made to bear right acalnst these rings, and if only fastened firm enough to the ground (eventually to pieces of timber buried In the earth and heavily weighted) would render even a side gale powerless. Sim ilarly, securing the ship fore and aft would be very simple. In the next Zep pelin such hawsers will no doubt form an integral part of the framing, being inter woven with the latter In such a way as to distribute the strain over the Whole structure. After all, the Zeppelin IV has only repeated the experience of the Le baudy on the plateau of Chalons on a larger scale, not to mention the Patrie. Protection against the electric .discharge which caused the final catastrophe would Indeed belong to an as yet remote chapter of practical aeronautics, and had hardly been thought of up to that time, although there were some accidents on record. Not to provide for an absolutely secure fast ening to the ground In case of an unfore seen landing -might be Indeed called an oversight, excusable under the circum stances. There had been some fear of the frequent German thunder storms, es pecially on account of the ship's vast ex panse of metal, but as In the air these storms are seen forming from afar, and have often been successfully, "circum navigated" by experienced pilots even in drifting spherical balloons, there was con fidence In the powers of a speedy runner like the Zeppelin. Perfecting the machinery against a "panne" will be, as with an auto, only a matter of sufficient number of practical tests. But the future will un doubtedly see an airship in an emergency anchored with one unbreakable bow cable to the top of a tall, strong steel tower after having been sufficiently lightened, and safely swinging to the storm like a J weather vane. Such "anchorages" will have to be provided everywhere. There will also be a series of lightning con ductors, of points for the escape of elec trical charges, along Its back, and all metal parts will be in good connection with the ground, while a ventilator will instantly dilute any gat that might escape into the protecting air space around the internal gas bags beyond the point where it remains inflammable. To become truly practical, airships will first have to get rid of their costly hangers, except for repairing purposes With their necessarily large size they possess so tough an outer skin as easily to endure the weather, while with their numerous separate compartments they may be Inflated, when suitably lightened, bag after bag, while floating In the air, through a flexible bow connection. It may safely be predicted that the future development of the winged power sup ported flying machine, as represented by Its most successful public exponent, the Volsin-Farman type, will involve more changes than that of the airship. T HE limitations of Its possibility to fly in the wind are at present clearly defined, and Farman himself, expects progress In that direction from a different design. He has, however, brought it under a truly wonderful degree of control. To fly seems to him like playing. He invariably leaves the ground after a short run, seems per fectly certain of what turns he can make, how high he may go and come safely down again, when to shut off power while landing and many more practical details which insure efficient flying. There seems really no reason why in favorable weather and over suitable grounds he could not fly for hours as well. In skill he surpasses without any doubt all his European competitors. The question only remains why he is not on more familiar terras with the wind. He has repeatedly stated that be believes practice with a power ma chine sufficient and considers a motor less glider as rather dangerous. To the Impartial observer two im portant points become apparent in the tardiness of the "new school" of flying apprentices to take up gliding. Prac tice with a gliding' Machine .becomes uninteresting and extremely tedious and laborious when there is no wind. The "old generation" of navigators, from Llllenthal on, did not have the modern marvellous light motors at their disposal. They had to glide, and they had by force to learn to control an aeroplane In the wind. To the mod ' ern flyers, on the contrary, the wind means more trouble than the calm meant to the "gliders" and they shirk It as much as possible. The result not only as to their own experience, but also especially as to the design adapted for the machines, will clearly be shown by a comparison of the one power ma chine which Is known to have devel oped from a glider, that of the Wright brothers, to that of Farman. For instance.- the horizontal rudder In front, which seems so much of a common fea ture of both machines, is In Farman's case deprived of power through the ex cessive leverage of the rear cell In connection with its own position too near to the front cell. It more than suffices to steer in a calm, but lacks power to force the machine back to an even keel if struck by a gust The Wrights' devices for Increasing or diminishing the supporting effort on either side and forcefully right the ma chine If It attempts to capsize are en tirely absent. Preserving the longi tudinal balance by a rear cell and the side balance by slightly uptlltlng the wing tips, a Farman does, are devices which are known to give excellent re sults In a calm or a very steady mod erate breeze, but which become act ually a hindrance when there are gusts. Lilienthal did real wonders when he rode his primitive gliding surfaces through gales, like a "bucking bron cho," throwing his weight instantly to the side which happened to be up. The Wright brothers developed a sys tem of rudder and surface movements by which the same skill might be more. J' fy "s' k ..-TV.- - fl 'f i "P""""N. "N - x 5 a-i sJf ' - X - ? 'ill- 1 A s? -1 .X. efficiently applied, and which would control very large machines as certain ly as smaller ones. They could hardly have thought of it. If they had begun their experiments in a calm with a power machine, for their very system would then have made flight much more "difficult than with any other type. There is also a "dark horse" In the race for supremacy In mechanical flying. Mr. A. M. Herring, about whose recent work nothing is known, but who may do all the tricks of the Wright brothers and more by an auto matic mechanism. The flying machine of the aerial experiment association at Hammondsport, which began with practically a duplicate of the Farman type. Is now more and more tending toward the Wrights'. There will soon be no more rear cell, and a more powerful front rudder. Side controlling had been Introduced even earlier. Nothing, "indeed, seems lack ing but the Wrights' several years of experience In the air. Farman's own future type seems as yet problemat ical. He alms at providing for lateral stability in gusts by decreasing the sldewise extent or leverage of the sup porting surfaces, substituting a num ber of smaller superposed or staggered ones for his two wide main surfaces, and for the longitudinal equilibrium by "articulating" the whole surface and turning some of the supporting planes themselves In place of a sep arate rudder. He believes strongly In a large fore and aft dimension, and he has adopted the long cloth-covered body of Bleriot and others to contain the machinery. It will be seen that In this he is rather at variance with American tendencies. Farman does not believe in gas-supported airships. By Nikola Tesla Calm comparison of balloons with aeroplanes to the former's advan tage. . PROGRESS In aerial navigation is es sentially dependent on the perfection of a process of producing great mechan ical effort with light machinery. Viewing ttte possibilities, near and remote, motive power Is obtainable in four ways first, by transforming the heat energy of fuel In an Internal combustion engine; second, by converting the electro-chemical energy ' of a primary or secondary battery in an electric motor; third, by harnessing on the moving vessel itself, the energy of the surrounding medium, and, fourth, by transmitting o it without wires the elec trical energy of a distant source. The first two methods are based on the use of a store of energy, which must be carried and periodically refilled, thus lim iting the speed and duration of flight The last two imply a flow of energy to the flying machine from without, the supply being continuous and Inexhaustible. They are, therefore, immensely superior to the former. Careful thought leads to the conclusion that the wireless method would be de cidedly the best for the peace and wel fare of men. But no matter how perfect the means for obtaining motive power. It will never be possible to go beyond certain rather narrow limits In aerial perform ance. The atmospheric ocean is Ideally adapt ed to travel, permitting, as It does, per fect freedom of movement In three di rections, but the physical properties of the air make It rather unsuitable for nav igation. It is a sticky or viscous sub stance, a hundred times more so than water, which means that it offers a rela tively very great frictional resistance to a body In motion. Its small density Is for many reasons detrimental to high effi ciency of propulsion. Its compressibility, turbulence and perpetual unrest all cause additional specific losses of motive power. These properties forever preclude the pos sibility of excessive speed with reference to the surrounding air by the aeroplane as well as the dirigible balloon. Making every allowance for future achievement, it is idle to expect that the record on land or water will be surpassed. The question Is frequently asked, which of the two types, the heavier or lighter than air. Is superior? No expert who has studied the subject thoroughly can be In doubt that the latter is by far the better of the two. The aeroplane has caught the public fancy, but such feats as those of Count Zeppelin will tell. Many erroneous ideas relating to aerial flight have taken hold of the minds of the people. In view of this it may be useful to point out the following facts: 1. The recent progress in aerial naviga tion is the direct and obvious result of the development of the internal combustion engine. 2. None of the latest flying machines. f aeroplane or dirigible, contain a radically novel feature of importance. 3. The self-propelled balloon Is by far superior to the aeroplane in carrying ca pacity, speed, cruising radius, safety and economy. x 4. The aeroplane can never have more than half the propelling efficiency of the llghter-than-air machine. 6. The dirigible balleon ie all the better the larger. The aeroplane gains nothing with size. 6. The Inclined plans, that is, the recti linear propeller, as a means of support is In all practical respects inferior to a ver tical rotary propeller. 7. To produce an efficient high speed flying machine the screv propeller must be replaced by a better means for pro pulsion. 8. No machine, however perfect, sup ported in air against the force of gravity by buoyancy, dynamic enon or omcrwiee, can ever equal In speed a machine which derives Its support from !and or water. 9 The m6st pressing need in aerial nav igation Is unfailing protection against lightning. By Augustus Post Secrecy of American Inventors has retarded development of airships. NOTHING has so astounded the public mind In generations as the recent development of the flying machine. Suc cessful flights have been made repeatedly abroad as well as in America.. Today the flying machine is a marvel of mechanical achievement. For many years action was dormant The time was not ripe, progress In the elements that go to make up the wonderful combination in the flying ma chine was not sufficiently advanced. The gas engine was strong, but not light; the proper curves for the cylinders were not known, and aerial propellers had not been used for any more powerful purposes than for fans and blowers. The aluminum casting Anally reached a point which gave great promise. Then began a series of practical tests by Lang ley, the Wright brothers and Herring in this country end by Sir Hiram Maxim, Santos-Dumont, Farman, Pelterle and others abroad. Most of the flights abroad were made in public, and each aviator was able to watch the work of his fellow experimenters. In the United States, I regret to say. the flying machine Invent ors, with one exception, have kept their work secret, so that Jealousy, which has greatly retarded the work In general and even has led to scepticism, has resulted. All this time there was formulating In the minds of sportsmen of this country, as well as among the Army officers, a plan for a great organization to regulate, con trol and utilize these wonderful apparatus. The most potent Influence in hastening progress and enthusiasm has -been the achievements of those who represented the United States and the Aero Club of America In the Bennett Aerial Club races In Paris and In St. Louis. Now the won derful achievements of Mr. Farman, who has been brought to this country under the auspices of the Aero Club of America, are certain to create in aeronautics the same Influence which the bringing of for eign automobiles to this country had on the raising of the standard of these ma chines. The organization of a National aeronau tical society in Washington, consisting of all the greatest scientists In the country and reaching In all directions throughout the land, which is now in progress, will do much to co-ordinate all efforts Into right channels and definitely formulate the best Ideas. The value of the airship In time of war is, of course, obvious, but this is not the end of aerial navigation by any means. The present forms of airship have a wide utility. Their value In geographical and topographical work, for Instance, will be enormous. The development of the human side of this new art has not progressed as far as the mechanical side. It has been said "The engine will run, the machine will fly, but man becomes afraid or tired." The concentration of mind required Is found to be an enormous strain. Then, again, means of automatic equilibrium must be perfected to relieve the operator. The aero curve must be studied to give the greatest lift for the normal speed and the least amount of surface. The efficiency of propelltrs In the air Is of the greatest Importance. The relation of pitch to speed and the speed of the engine to the speed of the propeller and the economy of fuel are all factors to be determined. The building of an airship to carry fre.jht is very distant and will come as a matter of special de velopment much later. The aerial navy of the future will surely be one of the greatest sights conceivable, far eclipsing the picture of a fleet at ea XESLA in spectacular grandeur. Only a small portion of the great bulk of our present battleships Is visible, and they are limited to one plane of action. The cruisers of the air moving freely In all directions will be clearly visible. What a sight will be the flying squadron of the future, as with banners flying and with music it casts a shadow over the .earth' below by day or by night fills the firmament with its dazzling searchlights! In course of time there will be personally conducted aerial excursions to the poles of the earth, and the gondoliers of the sky will land their passengers in all the cities of the world. By A. Leo Stevens Aeronaut who built and operated the first flying machine In Amer ica. NEW TORK Is destined to be the great air port of the world. The magnificent harbor, which has attract ed the ships from all parts of the world, will serve equally well when we navigate the air. We will be crossing the Atlantic Ocean in three or four years. At first It will be done by some adventurous sportsman, but as our. air ships are improved and we grow more confident and skilled in handling air ships their practical commercial value will appear. Some day we will Bee great airships, after making the trip from Europe In lncredi'bly short time, hovering over our harbor and lower ing their great boat-like baskets or cabins into the water, while tugs will bring them alongside the docks to land their passengers and freight. The future of the airship, it seems to me, lies In some improved form of the dirigible balloon. The development of this form has been carried further than in the case of the aeroplane. I am rather skeptical as to the commercial value of the aeroplane, at least for a long time to come. The dirigible bal loon travels further, and If not as fast at least with more certainty. The French and German governments have accomplished much with their war bal loons. They will stay aloft hours where the aeroplane will stay up for minutes. At the present stage of their development they are the more prac tical machine. The lifting powers of balloons may be increased indefinitely by building larger bags. As we learn to control them better there Is no reason why they should not be used as commercial machines. There Is today a very gen eral terror- of the balloon and aerial navigation in general, but this will dis appear largely as the airships become more familiar. I have made 1280 as censions and taken up nearly 600 per sons without serious mishap. In time aerial navigation will grow safer as In the case of any other means of loco motion. The airship is by no means as dan gerous a vehicle as most people imag ine. When accidents occur it is usually due to carelessness or ignorance. Just as In the case of automobiles. The time has come when the pilots or naviga tors of airships should be governed by explicit laws. I purpose having some such legislation presented at Albany this Fall. No one should be allowed to go up who has not received a pilot's license and proved his ability as an engineer. At present a pilot's license Is granted to any one who has made 10 ascensions, one at night, and has been passed by two regularly licensed pilots. I would suggest that the en gineer on a dirigible or aeroplane be licensed In the same way. By Charles M. Manley Consulting engineer of the Aero Club of America. WE are accomplishing more In a month nowadays in aeronautics than we did in a year half a decade ago. The slow, discouraging prelim inary work Is largely a thing of the past. Within two years such will be the progress that there will be from 20 to 30 aeronautic contests a year In New Tork alone. We will see races In mid-air, feats In staying aloft for long periods and similar contests. Such con tests, by the way, will not take place over the city of New Tork, for cities are dangerous localities for aeronauts. The high buildings are dangerous snags In such flights, and they create vortexes of air and other disturbances of the atmosphere which the mariners of the air wish to avoid. But we. will see great fields Just outside, the city set aside for them. Perhaps our race tracks will be used for this purpose. With the present development of the flying machine two fields are open. Our airships are valuable In warfare and In sport. The demand for them In these two fields is enough to stimulate their development. Their value in war is certainly a sufficient incentive for us to devote our time and our money to their development. If you ask me if they will have a practical commer cial value in five years, I should say no. Irl 10 years it is very likely they will be utilised; certainly they will have a very wide application within the next 20 years. The development of the lo comotive and the steamboat was slow er and in Its day more discouraging than that of the flying machine In our own day. ' By A. M. Herring Builder of an aeroplane for the United States Government. THE airship has actually arrived; Its practical utility is assured. It is pos sible to construct aeroplanes which will carry two men and will operate within a radius of 600 miles by following the pres ent forms. It has come to be largely a question of expense how large or how far such airships will travel. I am willing to contract to build an aeroplane which will carry 20 people. By utilizing a ma chine of this size to carry fuel and with but one or two people as passengers the radius is greatly increased. It is not inconceivable that such a machine could cross the ocean. I believe that an aeroplane which will carry 100 peopl6 is already a possibility with the present form and machinery. The development of the motor. Its light ness compared with its weight, is mar velous. It is now possible to build frames of extreme lightness which will be strong enough to support motors and passengers with safety. Without waiting for new development or new machinery the aero plane la already practical commercially. It will soon enjoy wide popularity among sportsmen. The sensation of riding on an aeroplane is one oi tne musi exim arating in the world. The airship has al ready been taken up by the military ex perts all over the world, and its develop ment 1b certain to be very rapid. Within a few years we will see the aeroplane serving as a carrier for the mails and for lighter freight for considerable distances. The frame of an aeroplane Is one of the most remarkable achievements of modern mechanics. Its lightness and strength, its adaptability to the strains it encounters and Its elasticity are marvelous. The best frames today are made or .steei. Alumi num has been tried, but it has not proved satisfactory. It has but one-third the Btrength of steel with equal weights. The layman in such matters does not realize how far we have progressed in these con structions. As one becomes more familiar with what has actually been accom plished his faith in flying machines will be increased to confidence. By Israel Ludlow Inventor of an aeroplane, member Aero Club. THE arrival of Henry Farman In this country with his aeroplane provides an opportunity to see a mechanical contrivance which will ulti mately take a place similar to the auto mobile runabout of today. I mean to say that the aeroplane will In time be a popular vehicle for one or two persons for cross-country riding. A few feet above the ground they will speed at a rate between 30 and 40 miles an hour, and In an air line direction take their course, hurdling trees and houses in the way; and either certain broad streets running in the four directions will ba given up to them or large open spaces will be provided as landing places. They will be as cheap as motorcycles and as economical in their upkeep. They will either have wheels on which to make preliminary runs on the ground in starting and stopping, or some aviators by a quick run against the wind or a Jump from a slight elevation will get away on their flight There will always be a spice of danger In their use. which will prevent the owner either issuing or having his Invitations to fly with him generally accepted. The fact that the aeroplane has so far made but a partial success does not discourage any inventor or deprive it of Intense attractiveness. Most of us look upon the early models of locomotive, steamboat and automobile with some thing of awe; and now with prophetic vision we may dream the future as we gaze upon Farman's machine. Its at tractiveness would be destroyed if one had not a belief In Its coming feats and Judged Its performance by the standard of a sensational balloon ascent or a parachute drop. Suppose the aeroplane s flight is only a few hundred yards, the fact that there Is a flight at all proves that man has en tered the bird's domain with a heavier-than-air flying machine. Since, through mechanical aid. he has beaten in speed and endurance the animal on land and the fish In the sea, may he not hope for rivalry with the winged flyers in the sky? The Incentive of the posibillty of most extraordinary flights with the aeroplane Is held out by Nature's examples; for If the most clumsy flying bird were in creased In else until it was as large and heavy as an aeroplane and man. It could keep afloat in the air by the ex ercise of less than two horsepower, and many birds could soar without the expenditure of apparently any energy. See what it will mean If a motor of approximately two horse power and a few yards of canvas will make a suc cessful aeroplane. Why. even the ho boes will have their flying machines and will in season flit from shady bower IKE . E-t4t, T E.TKAKEJRAIi eo3 st o.i.t to grassy lawn and beg of the Salvation Army piston rings Instead of shoes; or at the country farmhouse ask at the back door for a little bit of gasoline and the poet's dream, "Oh, for the wings of a dove." will come true. The crux of the problem of the Im provement of the aeroplane, although the reliable operation of the motor is im portant, is that of equilibrium. T would suggest three changes in the Farman aeroplane, not in the sense tn depreciate It or his exceptionally creditable achieve ment, but In response to your request to state what I think about the aero plane and because a discussion of the merits .of any design is of extreme In terest to those studying aerial naviga tion. First If the propeller were placed In front and drew the aeroplane, instead of in the rear where It pushes, the change would be a factor which would tend to increase the aeroplane's equilibrium. An analogous example of the difficulty of pushing may be found by holding the shafts of a wagon and running it back ward or by taking a strip of cardboard by the rear end and balancing it when pushing it forward on a horizontal line. Any variation of the balance results in an ever increasing tendency to upset. When holding the cardboard by the front end it balances itself, its angle of in clination rising and falling automatically with the variations in speed. The axis of this forward propeller should be placed so that backward draft of air created by its revolutions would Impinge up wardly on the aeroplane's supporting sur- faces at a slight angle to increase the resultant uplift. Proper application of power is a great saving of energy. Second If two horizontal rudders, In dividually movable at the will of the operator, each one much smaller than the present front horizontal rudder of the Farman aeroplane, which should be done away with, were placed in the front and! to the right and left near the outer tips of the supporting surfaces, they would answer to raise and lower the aeroplane and In addition could restore the aero plane's balance In the event of a sldewise tilt when In flight. If these balancing rudders were placed upon a slight dihe dral angle, it would increase their effi ciency, as In the event of a lateral tilt the rudder on the side which was down would be in a more or leess horizontal position and able to exert a maximum force. At present the lateral balance of Far man's aeroplane is controlled by a slight ly curved dihedral angle in the support ing surfaces. This is not sufficient to counteract even the vagaries of a slight breeze or the -tilt which is the natural result of a somewhat sharp change in the direction of flisrht. Third The boxlike tnll should be placed further to the rear. The great fault of all aeroplanes is their lack of longitudinal equilibrium. All have great tendency to make headlong dives. To counteract this, nerve racking attention Is necessary in the manipulation of the front horizontal rudder. Placing the box like tail further to the rear Increases the leverage against a diving movement. I believe in a new aeroplane now build ing in France M. Farman has increased the ratio of the length of the aeroplane to Its width, and that M. Bieriot's new monoplane recently successfully tried has a length from front to rear greater than Its width. My own aeroplane, which was borne in high winds as a man carrying a kite with an automobile and tug boat to tow, and was developed to meet those condi tions, I regard as superior to Farman's and I only regret that financial reasons have prevented my placing a suitable motor in it. By Allen R. Hawley Acting president Aero Club of America. LESS than a decade ago I attended an automobile run from the Wal dorf to Clairmont and return, when only seven out of 40 cars finished. To day a car runs from New Tork to Paris. A similar advance In aeronaut ics would revolutionize transportation. It is only a few years since the flying machine men could travel In but one direction, and that was straight down ward. Today, they can travel for miles. The situation speaks for Itself. Publio Interest In flying Is gener ally aroused and confidence In them machines will soon follow. Thou sands of people are watching these experiments, who are ready to change their automobiles for aeroplanes as soon as the sport becomes a trifle more famil iar. In Paris hundreds of people motor out to watch the tests regularly. In a year or two these same people will be op erating their own machines. The situ ation is the same In America. At first .flying will be a sport, but its commercial value will come later. In warfare, in science. Its utility is already assured. I believe it may solve the North Pole problem. Meanwhile a great many people are only waiting for the airship to become more familiar, to have their confidence a little strengthened, and we will see the airship relatively as common as automobiles. By Capt. Thos. S. Baldwin Builder of the dirigible balloon for Government tests. T" HE Kreat future of the airship I lies in transportation both for passengers and merchandise. Use in war It will have. Just as the telegraph and the railroad have had, but the great development of the airship will be for commercial purposes and to utilize the one free highway of the earth. The air Is free for us all, and It's going to be conquered with the boat and the railway. "How long? I cannot tell. No one (Concluded on Page 11.)
