CHEAP FLYING MACHINES COMING.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 20, Issue 70, 3 September 1909, Page 5

CHEAP FLYING MACHINES COMING.

HOW THEY ARE BUILT. The largest and most successful aeroplane factory in the world has been set up by the brothers Voisin, at Billancourt, near Paris, where the machines of Farman and Delagrange were constructed. The workroom, filled with great flying machines and their separate parts, presents a strange and picturesque spectacle, but what especially impresses a thoughtful visitor is the facility with which an aeroplane can be constructed. Here he finds nothing remotely resembling the formidable battery of apparatus which is required in building motor cars. A saw, a plane, a few planks and iron sockets, and a quantity of muslin and iron wire practically complete the list of machinery and materials. An aeroplane, with the exception of the motor, can be made more quickly and cheaply than a cab. The planks, which are of well seasoned ash, white pine or poplar, and about 30 or 35 feet long, are sawn into strips from 2 to inches square. Four such strips, connected by uprights and cross pieces about 30 inches long fitted into iron sockets, form the fuseau, or axis of the aeroplane, which is made rigid by diagonal wire braces. On the fuseau are placed a seat and a hack for the operator and an iron base for the motor. To each side is attached a wing which is constructed, like the fuseau, of four strips of wood connected by crosspieces and stiffened with wire braces. The two wings extend to right and left in the same straight line, and their combined length, including the breadth of the fuseau, is about equal to the length of the latter, from 30 to 35 feet. Each wing carries two horizontal aeroplanes of muslin: Nothing remains but to mount the motor, propeller and rudders. The system by which the rudders are controlled is simple and ingenious. Horizontal steering is effected by turning a wheel to right or left, and vertical steering by pushing the same wheel forward or pulling it backward. If the motor is ready, an aeroplane can be constructed and assembled in a week. The current price of an aeroplane is £BOO or £I,OOO, about half of which is for the motor. The high price is justified to some degree by the novelty of the industry and the infrequency of orders, but if the aeroplane, in becoming more practical and popular, retains its present simplicity, the cost of construction should not, and probably will not exceed £75 to £150.-” Popular Science Siftings.”