Boys' Own.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20740, 6 December 1930, Page 4 (Supplement)

Boys' Own.

By JKAPOWAI.

AVIATION.

It has always been man'? ambition to bo able to go about from place to place ia just the same way as the birds anil the butterflies, and even the smallest of insects do. Of course the chief difficulty he came up against is that he is much heavier than all those other creatures with wir gs, and so he had to make - something which would provide "a pair of wings for him. wa.i the last element to be conquered, and therefore, it is by far the hardest and most full of hazards. On land everyone feels quite at home, because even if our best friends won't offer us a lift, we have always a very useful pair of lc;gs to get about on. This is our natural element; and 'we, therefore, make our homes on it and live there most of our lives, whether it is thousands of feet up on the side of a mountain or do\v.i by the seaside.

When people got tired of being on the land too much they built little boats and, steering by the sun and stars, made voyages of discovery to find move land. Gradually men came to understand the ways of the sea, and as boats became larger and more safe, everyone found it the most pleasant thing in the world to go for a long, long voyage on a ship that would sometimes be out of sight of land for one of even two months. People were quite often drowned, or never heard of again through having beeiv wrecked, but that is just when the sea is angry at being used so much, and demands a sacrifice.

But the air is quite a different thing, because it is an invisible element, and apparently there is nothing to support you if you want to get a bird's eye view of the world. Many, many years ago Icarus is said to have flown by making a large pair of wings out of feathers, and fixing them on to his body with wax He went too close to the sun, however, and the wax melted—with tlie resilt that the sea into which he fell still bears his name.

The first successful flight was made by the now famous Orvillc Wright tin December 17, 19vJ3, but he' only stayed up for 12 secondt. His brother Wilbur Wright, also flew that day for 59 seconds; and since then aeroplanes have advanced so rapidly, that some have even remained for over a fortnight: in the air without once landing. Everyone is familiar'with a motor-car nowdays, and can easily tell how many gears it has and whether it is American or English make. With an aeroplane there are many new and interesting things to be learnfc, because !s t.here are no gears and instead of using wheels to move about on in the air it has wings. Next week some of the various parts will he illustrated and described, so that the workings of an aeroplane may be more easily understood.