Читать книгу The Rise of the Flying Machine - Hugo Byttebier - Страница 7

Introduction

From time immemorial, man has burned with the desire to emulate the flying creatures with which nature has endowed the world in such great profusion. Yet, as long as his approach was idealistic and not scientific, no progress was made and any attempt to copy the bird and its complicated flapping wings was doomed to failure.

For many centuries, the only flying beings were mythical and mythological gods or heroes whose existence remained outside the plane of reality. That all efforts to imitate the flight of the bird were to remain futile is obvious when we take the trouble to observe an aeroplane passing overhead.

It is not necessary to use one’s eyes to become aware of the presence of the machine because the first characteristic that strikes us is the noise it makes. That noise derives from the powerplant without which no horizontal flight is possible.

When we look at the aeroplane flying above us, we see a vehicle consisting of a streamlined fuselage carrying a fairly big monoplane wing that remains immobile. At the tail end, we note a small horizontal plane attached to it and on top stands a vertical fin, both as fixed as the wing. Only scrutiny at close quarters will reveal that the wing has small moving surfaces at the tips and others fitted at the rear end of the horizontal tail and of the vertical fin.

We all know what these moving parts are for. They are needed to direct and control the aeroplane in flight, along the three axes. The purpose of the wings is clearer still. They are there to lift the aeroplane and carry it through the air. But the purpose of the fixed tail and of the fin is not so commonly grasped; they are there for the sole purpose of keeping the aeroplane on an even keel, and without these fixed appendices safe flying would be as impossible as without the wing.