Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, MAY 4, 1925. BEGINNING OF AVIATION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLV, Issue 10386, 4 May 1925, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, MAY 4, 1925. BEGINNING OF AVIATION.

The announcement that the aeroplane in which Orville and Wilbur Wright made their first flight is to be presented to a London museum brings to mind the fact, almost overlooked, that aviation has only just attained its majority. The rapid developments in aerial navigation in recent years have so accustomed us to this wonderful product of science that it is hard to believe that practically all those who have just exercised their municipal franchise for the first time were born before the world was startled by the news that man had conquered the air. For many years experimenters had been en-

deavouring to construct machines to fly, among them Sir Hiram Maxim, Professor Langley, an American physicist, and N. 0. Ader. None succeeded, however, in achieving their object, though Ader made such advance that his machine lifted itself in uncertain manner from the earth and flew for about 300 yards. The Wright brothers, originally cycle makers of Davton, Ohio, adapting the ideas'formulated by others, were finally rewarded with success. On a cold winter morning, December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville flew for 12 seconds. Shortly afterwards, on the same morning, Wilbur made a flight of 59 seconds in the same machine. That was the birth of

flight in the modern sense. Their first invention was simply an aeroplane that flew in a straight line, but many modifications I were made in it, and in 1908, during experiments in France Wil- ! bur Wright created a record by | remaining in the air for over an i hour with a passenger. He also attained a speed of nearly 38 miles an hour. In the meantime, great strides had been made by other inventors. On November 13, 1906, Santos Dumont flew a heavier-than-air machine for 240 yards at Bagatelle, near Paris. In 1908, when Farman flew from

Chalons to Rheims, early experimental flights began to take on practical reality. The next year saw immense strides. The name of Bleriot is perhaps chieSy associated with this wonderful year. He crashed again and again, but escaped death with amazing luck. In the early summer he flew from Etampes to Orleans, 25 miles, skimming low over houses and hedgerows, and keeping for a distance with the Paris-Orleans

express, the windows of which were crowded with the faces of amazed passengers. On July 25 of that year, Bleriot, rising in a slight mist, without watch or compass, on the French side of the Channel alighted triumphantly (albeit with a crash) on the Dover cliffs. His feat, possibly the most memorable' in the history of aviation, made flight a serious method of transport. The march of progress since then has been uninterrupted, but even a catalogue of the successive steps would be out of the question. The best illustration of air progress is found in contrasting the Wrights' tiny biplane with one of the latest bombing machines..

Whereas the biplane weighed only 7591b5. installed with a. 12h.p. engine, and was capable of carrying one man, the bomber weighs nearly 20 tons, its engine is of nearly 3000-h.p.; it carries three men, besides 2000 gallons of fuel and 50001bs. of bombs. Again, the pioneer aircraft attained a speed of from 30 to 35 miles an hour, could travel 852 feet without alighting, its longest non-stop flight lasted 59500. and it rose to a height of only 15 font. To-day's machines have attained 280 miles an hour, can cover 3293 miles without alighting, have remained in the air for 28

hours and have attained an altitude of 39,857 fet. In regard to rigid airships equally astonishing progress has been made. In 1903 the gas capacity was 400,009 cubic feet and the engine of 32h.p. To-day plans are being prepared for vast aerial liners of a gas capacity of ten million cubic feet and with a load capacity of 200 tons. These liners will be able to fly from England to Colombo in four days and to New Zealand in nine days. Air transport services are now an essential part of the facilities of modern day travel and it is safe to predict that before another 21 years have elapsed the whole earth will be encircled by a network of airways along which passengers and goods will be conveyed with the safety and regularity that now characterise the steamship lines.