CONQUEST OF THE AIR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14223, 20 November 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

CONQUEST OF THE AIR.

A NEW BIPLANE. K .

SUCCESSFUL ;. EXPERIMENTS. ___ M. Mat/rick Farman, whose debut in aviation has 'been looked, forward to with considerable interest, as he has a machine devised according to original ideas of hie own, has, after, three months of preparatory practice, been-able to make a splendid cross-country flight, returning to his starting-point at ' Buc, near Versailles, without the slightest hitch. This success of another of the Farman Brothers, so well known in the sporting and aviation world, ie welcomed with great satisfaction. M. Maurice Farman has been in the habit of going to Buc every afternoon when it was fine weather, and went through a regular course of training. His aeroplane was housed in a shed on the ground hired for aeroplane practice by M. Esnault Pelterie, the chief organiser, by the way, of the first aeronautic salon, .which opened recently.

Some time ago the. news came that Mr. Flat-man had been able to fly with hie own machine, and then that his first plan was to make a good cross-country flight, like M. Santos Dumont, a project in which he has now fully succeeded. , He started from the Plateau of Chateaufort at Buc, flew across a farm at Touasue. followed the line of an aqueduct for some distance, passed behind the Fort of Hausbuc at a considerable elevation, thence flew to a place called Guyancourt, made a sharp turn at Voisins, and returned on a straight line to his shed, after a trip of about a quarter of an hour. He had flown without the slightest difficulty above the tops of the trees,, over farmhouses, barns, and telegraph wires. His brother, Dick Farman, M. Guffroy, and other aviators witnessed his flight, and congratulated him on his success. itis machine might best be described as a double Antoinette or Bleriot; that is to sav, two monoplanes, one super imposed on the other. It has the widespread wings of the -'Antoinette and the tapering tail of the Bleriot machines, when .seen from above or below, but is a biplane instead of a monoplane. The two big planes have a spread of ten metres, with movable extremities like the Wright machines. There are two smaller lighting planes, serving as horizontal rudders, ataehed to the front of the machine and projecting about three yards forward of the main body. The tail tapers back, like that of the Bleriot monoplanes, and carries the lateral rudder and two steadying planes at its extremity, some five yards aft of the main, body. The frame is of wood, covered over with varnished canvas.

The machine has been built by the wellknown aeronautical engineer. M. Mallet, and, contains certain improvements, which may give it a superiority over others. Two motors were tried, first a ten-cylinder, forty horse-power Rep engine) weighing only 100 kilos, and then an eight-cylinder Renault motor, specially constructed for M. Farman, which can develop 58 horse-power, weighing 178 kilos. j)uring the recent experiments the Renault engine was used, and has been giving great satisfaction.