Shall Man Fly as the Birds in the Air ?

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18009, 20 November 1926, Page 17

Shall Man Fly as the Birds in the Air ?

New Brighton Inventor claims that he has Solved Difficult Problem

(Written for the “Star ' by IVaipuni.)

HIDDEN among sand dunes, I mostly covered by spreading lupins, lialf-way between New Brighton and North Beach, is an unimposing one-room building, around the walls and on the floor of which are sufii-, eienl tools, lathes, vices, parts of engines and so on lo equip a ! more pretentious workshop. ' But what strikes the caller on I the occupier of these premises more 1 than that great array is a framework of wooden slats at all angles with a paper wing on each side, and the number of similar wings standing up against the four walls. It is reminiscent of a workshop attached to an | aerodrome, with all the paraphernalia suggestive of flight, and flight is the great thought lying in the mind of the holder of the key of the door, Mr I Thomas Foster, a little London-born man, who feels that in the idea which he is working on lies the solution of flying on the principle of the action of I the wings of a bird, a dragon-fly or a . ee. Mr Foster, who has been experi-1

! menting for years, claims that he has lifted 861 bs with a very small engine and that he has got his fairly substantial model to rise off the floor a few , inches with only the use of the power of his own arms. Multiply that power greatly by means of engines, he says, and flying machines, capable of rising , and alighting on the back lawn, will become a certainty, with the result j that the ’plane the prefers to call it i flying machine) will be as common as 1 the motor-car is to-day. Mr Foster I does not think that the small machine, ! as suggested, is but an idle dream as does Sir Alan Cobham, K.8.E., and it is his ambition to show the world that Cobham is wrong, But like many obscure inventors the occupant of the little workshop at New Brighton, has one difficult hurdle—lack of finance, so that he must confine his activities to models made by himself with such materials as he is able to procure at small cost. I When a “Star” representative made 1 his first call at the New Brighton workshop, Mr Foster was busy pottering around his model of the bird ma- ! chine” and, though delighted to have . a newspaper man call on him with re- | gard to his invention, he said that he i was not prepared to give a demonstra-

tion of the rising powers of the model. “Will you come back?’* he asked. “Make it at your own time and convenience.” An appointment was made, the wings of the machine not being attached on the occasion of the first visit. On the second everything was in order—a good clear space in the centre of the workshop, and wings attached to each side of the machine. Mr Foster explained that by a very rapid flap of the wings the body and fuselage would lift off the ground, and he had a measurement board showing the actual extent of the lift from the floor. The New Brighton inventor, by means of arms attached from the rear of the machine to the wings gave a prodigious heave, causing the single wing on each side to flap and the framework lifted four inches. “Try it yourself,” he said, but the newspaper man did not have the proper knack and could effect only a slow mov* ment of the wings, of which any selfrespecting bird would be ashamed. Mr Foster gave other demonstrations and each time there was a lift of the body. “There can be no limit to the number of wings, provided each does not touch,” he said in answer to a question, “and with engine power the flappings can be made so rapid that rapid ascent must be possible. I am only a small man, below the average in strength, but you can see that even the little power such as I can give will cause a lift.” Has Mr Foster solved a problem which has been tackled by engineers in aviation for }’ears past? Perhaps he has, who can say? He is convinced that he has and possibly more will be heard of him, though much time might elapse before he is able to advance beyond the experimental stage.