THE FLYING SHIP OF THE FUTURE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 134, 29 February 1908, Page 11

THE FLYING SHIP OF THE FUTURE.

There are lots of people' dreaming "about flying; ships to-day ; but-Mr."-H.--G. Wellsj. scientist arid-novelist, can hardly bo ranked in this impractical category. Yet. ho has his drcani. < In'liis latest fiction in the "Pall Mall Magazine," Mr. Alfred Butteridge, one of the characters, rbinainod'in tho' air altogethor for about nine hours,' and during that time ho flew witly tho ease and assurance of a bird. "His machine was, however, neither bird-like nor butterfly-like, nor had it the wide lateral oxpansion of tho ordinary aeroplane. Tho.effect upon tho observer was rather something in tho naturo pf a bee or wasp. Parts of.- tlio apparatus were spinning very rapidly, and gave ono a hazy effect of transparent' wings; but parts, including two peculiarly cjirved 'wing cases'—if onb may borrow a figuro from tho flying beetles —remained expanded stiffly; In tho middlo was a long rounded body like the body of a moth, and on this Mr. Butteridge could bo seen sitting astride,- much as a man bestrides a borso. Tho wasp-like rosomblance was increased by the fact that the apparatus flow with a deep booming huni, oxactly the sound made by a wasp at tho window oano."- .