A LOCAL AEROPLANE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 532, 12 June 1909, Page 6

A LOCAL AEROPLANE.

! MODEL .TRIALS. ! REPORTED IMPROVEMENTS ON THE WRIGHT AIR-CRAFT. PROPELLERS MORE IMPORTANT THAN PLANES. Men have always dreamed of flying, since over the first man dreamed. It is not probable that primitive man ever did dream, being somewhat hard beset with actualities. But the time of the dreamers came speedily, as evolution goes; thero began to be talk of gods and demons'ui the world; men daubed thoinsolves with ochre and fashioned rudiment wry-instruments- of music—and so, speedily enough, men looked to the empyrean, and dreamed of flight. It '. does not seem that anything practical resulted for a considerable number of years. But in the end there was the beginning.' Contemporary with Peter the Apostle was biraon the Magician, who made some sort of machine by whose means he said he could uy; but Simon came to an untimely end; the neks of aviation would seem to have been already great. Later, much later, a French priest, who had been born at Civita Vecchia, and cradled in the Levant, roturned from India (where

he had laboured as a missionary), and announced that he , could fly. According to various chronicles.of the time, he actually did fly ("on machine of the faehion of an eagle") from Calais to.England, in a littlo'l over an hour.. 'But he, too, disappeared,-and far , a long time tho world heard nothing , more of aviation. ■•• ■ .'■■ .. .... Heavfer-Than-Alr. ' There were, ,of course, the fire-balloons, and later the gas-balloons; but baDoone could never be said to fly. Truo, t<vday Zeppeluiis flying, in a sort of way; but the huge dirigibles are iinwieldy, and.the percen•tage of disaster naa up to now been very great. The future of air-flight, it is maintained, is for tho Beavier-than-air machines, and the science of air-flight (as thus understood) has already passed- well into the realm of accomplishment. The Wright Brothers have done wonderful work; Farman and' others come; good seconds. -. Men can fly. The future is for the man who can fly best. Recently it came to tho eare of The Dominion that a Wellington syndicate or a»-'

sociation of inventors was building an aeroplane. Inquiry proved that thero was sonuv thing in the rumour. It appears that the inventors are Messrs. W. J'orrester, P. Ellis, Baldwin, and llayward, and Mr. H. D. Vickery is also associated with them. Mr. Baldwin, when interviewed on thei subject, said: "Yes, we have been working; on an--aeroplane for a good many months' past—ourselves, Mr. William. Forrester, and Mr. Peter.Ellis.. As the times go, it is tho sort of thing that any journal must bo interested in, and wo were the more interested because we had reason to think from the • start that wo are on to a rather good thing. If you liko to como along to-morrow, yoii shall seo tho. trial of tho model." / The buoyancy of the machine was extromo, its rigidity surprising. It was only in its genoral motion that it suggested any resemblance to what wo havo been of the Wright machines. The great Wright biplanes aro of the box-kite type, and, in tho case of any such huge structure, it has been contended that there'must always be difficulty in rising . from the ground. The completed machine those Wellington invrat,oth aro working on, littod to lift and oofty

one man in flight, will consist of a single plane, some 16ft. by. Bft., below which the rider, or aviator, io suspended like the bob of a pendulum. High-Speed Propellers With Lifting Action. The thing that strikes one most, is the comparative smallness of the monoplane, which contrasts so notably .with-the great surfaces of the big biplanes. The'inventors, it seems, roly more on the high velocity of the propellers than on the spread of planesurface. Mainly, the purpose of the plane in this new machine is to expedite alighting. The propellers, work, on the level of the plane, but are driven from below. The shaft is so placed as to be always parallel with tho plane. ..•:.. The propellors are at each end, the bladea peculiarly shaped so as to give ■ a lifting action to lift the machine and maintain its elevation in flight. , The cage, suspended irom ,tho shaft, lies well below both shaft and. plane. . It carries the motor and the ' aV o a^? r " machine will be fitted witha Zo-n.p. motor, the-connecting driving-gear being a bevel-toothed gearing. shaft, running from the engine to the propeller-shaft.' Propellers and Vertical Control. The vortical' control will be gained by altering the angle of the propellers, and tie side movements-by means of small vertical planes acting,as rudders: both movements controlled by levers from the ca-*e Judging from tho trial of the model, it would seem that these inventors really have

accomplished much. The machine rises from the ground l with great case, needing no propulsion from an eminence or long' preliminary run. Owing to the position of tho cage, the centre of/gravity of the machine and its load is in such a position as to preserve the equilibrium under all conditions. "In Any Weattior." . , It is claimed that this aeroplane can ascend in any weather in perfect safety. In the construction of the model, the inventors were faced with; ono difficulty—no motor powerful enough, of the small dimensions necessary, was obtainable. Consequently pending construction of the full-sized machine, impetus had to be obtained, by tho of: a winding cord, on tho principle by-.which a top is spun. The littlo liiodo) rose immediately, arid seemed to-more than justify its makers', hopes and expectation*. ' ,/ Mr - .Bayward and his paitneru are very hopeful. "We 'have what some, or most, or tho other aeroplane people have not" he said; ■• "we have-assured .equilibrium and rigidity. The possibility of capsizo is reduced to an absolute minimum. So long j

■as the engine runs, the machine must fly, and there is sufficient plane-surfaco to make descent easy and snfo when the engine is stopped. ■ ' ■ ' '."iVbm.the outset, when wo' began to consider. this- question, of . aviation, wo put nil lightcr-than-air machines altogether out of the Of course one hears a lot ?M«; y W * ay of reply to tho enthusiasm for aration in France. But Zeppelin s record has been disastrous, and his accomplishments remain uncertain. It is obv.ous that one. can take up as many big enough; but tho bigger the balloon tho STflSi.? , - 8 ' and a balloon is nofc raitea tor nignt in any case. Box-kite Ittoa Did Not Appeal. "We wanted to make a trno flying-machine -a machine that would take its driver into tho air, and in.the teeth of tho wind, fo! pretty well any weather. The more we studied the thing, the less reason wo could discover for any .huge expanso of plane. The ZT rn'i d «l not appeal to us: its instability w letja) £ . .ni

is one thing for men of iron nerve, and almost inhuman coolness, like the Wrights, to make a machine and operate it, and quite another thing to get such a machine adapted for general use.

♦i " W r ffi re ?i ised t that ™ had to overcome ,tne dimculty of rising, and .wo were very aiixious to make a machine that should be stable when ui'tho air.' A smart aeroplane that spills its aviator occasionally was no't what we were looking for. My associates have worked very/hard and earnestly over this thing, and I really believe that wo have got what wo sought for. "As to the possible uses .and- value of such a machine it is too early to speak; ana that is not my subject, anyhow 1 don't believe that the box-kite idea is to cX n Ml this flying diffi! yet, but the trial ; has been in every reS