FLYING MACHINES FOR SALE.

New Zealand Mail, 29 January 1902, Page 16

FLYING MACHINES FOR SALE.

Anyone may buy a flying machine now ■—that is, anyone who can afford £950. M. Santos Dumont’s daring flights and the success that has favoured the brave have induced the Motor Power Company to make flying machined or steerable balloons for sale. Their production is called the Napier Flying Mashine, and they are prepared to take orders at once. The day of general aerial Diavigation so long dreamed of in uiioatisfied wonder is in sight. The machine now offered to the public will be, broadly speaking, on the lines of those in which M. Santos Dumont has lately been flying gracefully around the Eiffel Tower. The balloon is 75ft. long by 25ft. greatest diameter, has a capacity of about 25,000 cubic feet, and is fitted with an air-bag for equalising tho pressure. The balloons are to be made by Mr Spencer, the well-known aeronaut, and will carry his guarantee. There is an under-frame, 50ft. long, taking the form of a latticed girder, and for lightness it is to be made of aluminium or other suitable material. Tho engine—the mover, tho life of the machine—is a 4-cylinder Napier watercooled petrol motor with electrio ignition, giving not less than 14-h.p. on tho brake. This connection of tho motor with the propelling shaft is by means of a friction clutch as used on motorcars.

Tho machine is steered either by a rudder or by altering the direction of tho propeller. The lifting power of this rapid airship is ab*ut 140Ulb. —after subtracting its own weight. Mr S. F. Edge, director of the oompany, divides tho 14001 b. as follows:—Weight of the motor and driving gear, about 5001 b .; frame, about 3001 b.; sundries, tanks, petrol, water and so on, 2301 b. ; and it is estimated the aeronaut would himself weigh something liko 1701 b. and would take 2001 b. of sand up with him. M. Santos Dumont, who lias returned to Paris, in speaking of the Army Palloon Factory at Aldershot, said that it vras in full activity. He regarded the vast camp at Aldershot as a splendid field for tho rapid perfecting of the steerable balloon, and believed that Colonel Tempter and the Engineer corps at Aldershot were doing their utmost to solve the problems which attended the application of "the science of the air’ to military requirements.