PIONEER OF FLIGHT

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 16, 13 October 1927, Page 16

PIONEER OF FLIGHT

Man has dreamed of flying through the air from tho earliest ages of time, but it is only of recent years that his labours have been crowned with success, for. in face of the prodigious advances of the last 20 years, we are very apt to forget that it was only in 1903 that the brothers Wright achieved tho first motor-driven man-carrying flight, and that that flight lasted only a fraction of a minute But to whom must be tho credit of being the first pioneer of flight as “’Sy 13 now understood? (asks W. H. Pick, B.uC., F.R.A.S., in the "Newcastle Weekly Chronicle”). The search for that credit takes us far back beyond the brothers Wright, and. in general opinion, lands us into the Middle Ages. and to the great Italian. Leonardo da Vinci, who died in 1519. Leonardo, in truth, merits the often misused title of “great man." His interests were comprehensive, his knowledge encyclopaedic, and his vision farreaching. On many subjects lie was an authority and on many subjects he bequeathed work that has been off real value to the humanity (hat followed after him. Especially has this,been the case in mechanics, dynamics, and statics — and very especially in aeronautics, the science of aviation. Also, of course, he is famous as an artist. The keynote of his work in aviation is to bo found in the passage where he wrote: A bird is an instrument working according to mathematical law, an instrument which it is within the capacity of man to reproduce with all its movements." That was his faith and that his direction of work. With unremitting cate and patience ho studied the flight of birds and analysed tho observations that he made by means of his mechanical knowledge. Ho left copious notes copiously self-illus-trated, and bis manuscript entitled “The Flight of Birds,” recently translated into English by Dr. I. Hart, apd published in full in that author’s “The Mechanical Investigations of Leonardo da Vinci," is a classic of foundational value, remaining as the first scientific ininquiry into the flight of birds, he was though, of course, it needs amplification and amendment in tho fiercer light of modern advances. As an incidental to Ins inquiry into the flight of birds, he was also, perha.rs, the discoverer of the "lighter-than-air” principle, lieing fully aware of the decreasing density of the air and that warm air is less heavy bulk for bulk than colder air," and, ns a result of this knowledge, he made “fire balloons" of thin wax filled with warm air. But it is creditable to him that he was not diverted from the harder and more fruitful study of “heavier-than-air" ideas of flight to. the easiei and less fruitful one of "ligbter-tlian-air” ideas. He also may be given the credit of inventing the parachute, figurin'’ such a device in a manner very closely related to the type now in use His invention, be it noted, was some 300 years in advance of the first actual parachute descent, which was made in 1783 by Txmormand, at 5(001001101*. bior did da Vinci confine himself entirely to theory in the matter of flight, for be did actually design machines to fir. True that, these machines were crude snd cumbersome, and now only of historic interest, but they are, without doubt, to be regarded in the true line londiiif to our modern triumnbs. He did not hesitate to attenmt to “take the hit" himself Vhough. unfortunately, his nttenint was unsuccessful, for it a is quaintlv stated by a contemporary writer that ‘'Leonardo da Vinci also attempted to flv: but misfortune befel him from it.” adding somewhat irrelevant!v but truly—“Ho was a great painter. >f