A NEW FLYING MACHINE.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 18, Issue 41, 21 May 1907, Page 2

A NEW FLYING MACHINE.

Major F. Baden Powell writes in tho "Natuonal lieview"- : It lias recently been announced that two experimenters, the brothers Wright, who for years have carried on experiments, with gliding- machines, had applied a motor and, propellers to their apparatus, and had thereby driven it along so as to maintain itself for a considerable .time (over half an hour) in the air. We are sometimes apt to close one eye and compress the laps on bearing/a sensational story emanating from the other side of the Atlantic, but in this, case the heroes of the tme are known to be thoroughly* reliable men who would not be likely; to elaborate a cock and bull story. It is well-known that they have been hard at work on this subject for several y/ears, and from the many researches that have lately been made in this subject, we now kno-ws that there is, no good reason why an aeroplane propelled through the air by screw propellers should not be able to sustain itself. Models even up to 301 b in weight, have on several occasions been made to fly successfully for considerable distances) The late Dr. Ijangley constructed one with a steam engine which went for over three-quajrters of a mile through the air* So that there is nothing so very Incredible in the announcement that such a machine has been made to carry a man. And yet this, though we Are at present without any details of the machine itself, and therefore cannot say whether or not it is a really practical contrivance, is an eyent of the very highest importance. A practical dirigible balloon max demand our most serious attention., nut it i.s a mere nothing when compared to tho introduction of a veritable flying machine. The dirigible balloon is bound to be veiy dependent, on weather. It is extremely, unlikely that it can be propelled at any great, speed, that is, over twenty-five or thirty miles an hour. It is ev-en hardly likely that it will bo able, as a rule, to perform journeys of over say a hundred miles. It must be a expensive affair, which caa only take a few men and a very limited amount of explosives, ' etc.. But the flying machines promise something very different. One hardly dares to fix a limit to the speed at which they may be able to go. Considering that 'motor cars can along a road at one hundred miles an hour, what shall wo be able to attain when independent of tho friction of wheels of unevenness and curvature ol roads, of the sudden encounter with traffic, childron, dogs ? In the unimpeded and practically frictionless air one may be sped along at the utmost limit that the engines can give us, and our grand-children, or even our children, will probably think no more of rushing down to the country at a speed of one hundred miles an hour than we now do motoring at twenty miles an hour. Such a. machine will truly introduce novelties in war, to say nothing of peace. When a Frenchman can •dash across to our shores in ten minutes, and be over London within an hour, it will be high time to consider wherein our insularity consists, and of what good to us is the silver streak and our indomitable navy ! Tariff reform; ta doomed when hundreds of aerial vessels are continually passing at all heights and in all directions. National frontiers and private. boundries will alike be obliterated. And again let us remember that the ourtain has actually risen in this now act 'of the world's drama, and, even though they may be but embryonic Gontrivanoes, we now actually have machines, with and without balloons, capable of navigating the air ! Inventions and improvements follow one another so qstickly nowadays that it becomes necessary to 'keep a sharp look-out to be beside the times. Presuming that a practical flying machine is in existence to-day, it will certainly not be many years before others will be developed all the world over. Motor cars were hardly more than dreamt ol twenty years ago—were looked upon as curiosities "ten years ago—but now they are a feature, of our daily life. So let our soldiers and sailors carefully consider, while there is yet time, what course to follow in war ; let our politicians anticipate the day when frontiers cease to exist ; let our law-givers ponder over the laws of trespass, and the safeguarding of the public from this awful curse which threatens to cloud our skies with flights of human 10- ( . custs !