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Table of Contents

The sudden awakening—Early successes—Influence of the gasoline engine on aeroplanes—On dirigible balloons—Interested inquiry—Some general terms defined.

In the year 1908 the world awakened suddenly to the realization that at last the centuries of man’s endeavor to fly mechanically had come to successful fruition.

There had been a little warning. In the late autumn of 1906, Santos-Dumont made a flight of 720 feet in a power-driven machine. There was an exclamation of wonder, a burst of applause—then a relapse into unconcern.

In August, 1907, Louis Bleriot sped free of the ground for 470 feet; and in November, Santos-Dumont made two flying leaps of barely 500 feet. That was the year’s record, and it excited little comment. It is true that the Wright brothers had been making long flights, but they were in secret. There was no public knowledge of them.

In 1908 came the revelation. In March, Delagrange flew in a Voisin biplane 453 feet, carrying Farman with him as a passenger. Two weeks later he flew alone nearly 2½ miles. In May he flew nearly 8 miles. In June his best flight was 10½ miles. Bleriot came on the scene again in July with a monoplane, in which he flew 3¾ miles. In September, Delagrange flew 15 miles—in less than 30 minutes. In the same month the Wrights began their wonderful public flights. Wilbur, in France, made records of 41, 46, 62, and 77 miles, while Orville flew from 40 to 50 miles at Fort Myer, Va. Wilbur Wright’s longest flight kept him in the air 2 hours and 20 minutes.

The goal had been reached—men had achieved the apparently impossible. The whole world was roused to enthusiasm.

Since then, progress has been phenomenally rapid, urged on by the striving of the inventors, the competition of the aircraft builders, and the contests for records among the pilots.

By far the largest factor in the triumph of the aeroplane is the improved gasoline engine, designed originally for automobiles. Without this wonderful type of motor, delivering a maximum of power with a minimum of weight, from concentrated fuel, the flying machine would still be resting on the earth.

The Renard and Krebs airship La France, at Chalais-Meudon.

Nor has the influence of the gasoline motor been much less upon that other great class of aircraft, the dirigible balloon. After 1885, when Renard and Krebs’ airship La France made its two historic voyages from Chalais-Meudon to Paris, returning safely to its shed, under the propulsion of an electric motor, the problem of the great airship lay dormant, waiting for the discovery of adequate motive power. If the development of the dirigible balloon seems less spectacular than that of the aeroplane, it is because the latter had to be created; the dirigible, already in existence, had only to be revivified.

Confronted with these new and strange shapes in the sky, some making stately journeys of hundreds of miles, others whirring hither and thither with the speed of the whirlwind, wonder quickly gives way to the all-absorbing question: How do they fly? To answer fully and satisfactorily, it seems wise, for many readers, to recall in the succeeding chapters some principles doubtless long since forgotten.

As with every great advance in civilization, this expansion of the science of aeronautics has had its effect upon the language of the day. Terms formerly in use have become restricted in application, and other terms have been coined to convey ideas so entirely new as to find no suitable word existent in our language. It seems requisite, therefore, first to acquaint the reader with clear definitions of the more common terms that are used throughout this book.

Aeronautics is the word employed to designate the entire subject of aerial navigation. An aeronaut is a person who sails, or commands, any form of aircraft, as distinguished from a passenger.

Aviation is limited to the subject of flying by machines which are not floated in the air by gas. An aviator is an operator of such machine.

A free balloon, with parachute.

Both aviators and aeronauts are often called pilots.

A balloon is essentially an envelope or bag filled with some gaseous substance which is lighter, bulk for bulk, than the air at the surface of the earth, and which serves to float the apparatus in the air. In its usual form it is spherical, with a car or basket suspended below it. It is a captive balloon if it is attached to the ground by a cable, so that it may not rise above a certain level, nor float away in the wind. It is a free balloon if not so attached or anchored, but is allowed to drift where the wind may carry it, rising and falling at the will of the pilot.

A dirigible balloon.

A dirigible balloon, sometimes termed simply a dirigible, usually has its gas envelope elongated in form. It is fitted with motive power to propel it, and steering mechanism to guide it. It is distinctively the airship.

Aeroplanes are those forms of flying machines which depend for their support in the air upon the spread of surfaces which are variously called wings, sails, or planes. They are commonly driven by propellers actuated by motors. When not driven by power they are called gliders.

A biplane glider.

Aeroplanes exist in several types: the monoplane, with one spread of surface; the biplane, with two spreads, one above the other; the triplane, with three spreads, or decks; the multiplane, with more than three.

The tetrahedral plane is a structure of many small cells set one upon another.

Ornithopter is the name given to a flying machine which is operated by flapping wings.

A parachute descending.

Helicopter is used to designate machines which are lifted vertically and sustained in the air by propellers revolving in a horizontal plane, as distinguished from the propellers of the aeroplane, which revolve in vertical planes.

A parachute is an umbrella-like contrivance by which an aeronaut may descend gently from a balloon in mid-air, buoyed up by the compression of the air under the umbrella.

For the definition of other and more technical terms the reader is referred to the carefully prepared Glossary toward the end of the book.