FLYING MACHINE EXPERIMENTS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIX, Issue XVI, 9 October 1897, Page 508

FLYING MACHINE EXPERIMENTS.

An experimenter with the Lillientbal flying machine says he baa obtained a speed of 60 miles an hour, and the speed and the machine were so completely under eontrol that ont of, possibly, 1,000 flights, no accident occurred which prevented him from making a comparatively gentle landing. He describes the sensation of * coasting ’ through the air as something similar to tobogganing without the drop at the beginning of the glide. In strong winds the hillside is often left horizontally, or even on an ascending line, bnt when dear of the rising carrent of air near the hill, an operator can, with a little practice, make the direction and speed until the ground is reached al mo it where he will. By shifting his weight forward he causes the machine to descend, when he feels himself gaining velocity at a tremendous rate. When within ten or twelve feet of the ground he moves easily back to his original position, and the machine returns to a level keel and skims along with gradually diminishing speed for sixty to 100 yards, while the operator’s feet dangle about a few inches above the grass. A. M. Herring, who has taken np the work where the unfortunate Lillienthal left it, says it is not by any means easy to learn to handle a gliding machine. It is much more difficult than learning the bicycle, yet when the trick is once mastered it is doubtful whether a bicycle can be handled with any greater ease. Mr Herring thinks that in less than five years we shall see the first one-man machine which can travel sixty miles an hour and cover 500 miles without stop.