The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1911. THE AEROPLANE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 33, 23 September 1911, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1911. THE AEROPLANE.

Herr Emil Keller, of Zurich—a place from which many things of interest come —has published a little work in which ho raises the question whether, after all, we can really be said to have solved the problem of flight. Aeroplanes, in his view, are merely “motor-driven kites.” They have enabled men to glide, but net to fly in the sense that a bird flies. By means of the vastly improved motor of to-day he hopes to achieve great things with a flying machine of the kind tried before planes wore utilised. It will lie modelled directly on a bird, with clearly defined wings, tail, and feathers ; and will, he claims, bo much more stable and more speedy than any type of aeroplane.' An English paper commenting on this says the distinction here set up between flying and gliding seems a false one. When we have learned to maintain in th air a body that is heavier than air we have solved the main problem that the bird solves, and the likeness or imlikencss to a bird of the machine with which we do it is only of aesthetic importance. Those who contend that effectual flight can only be achieved with wings would doubtless have urged, in the days when our remote forefathers were discussing the merits of wheels, that any improvement in land locomotion must necessarily take the form of a

machine with logs. To fly like a bird would mean propelling ourselves without artificial motive power. The relation of the weight we have to raise to the power at our command seems to make that definitely impossible. But in supplementing .our motive power we have improved upon the bird, since wo do what it does without its loss of energy. If wo could interview an eagle on airmanship we should probably find him rather envious of our ability to got about in his element without the trouble of moving ourselves. Mr Keller’s bird machine is designed to move on land, water, or air. If it does this, and is faster and better balanced than existing aircraft, it will bo welcome for these reasons; but its inventor can hardly claim that it marks the use of new principles of flying.