Preface.
The problems that arise in connection with the study of Aerial Flight are so numerous and of so diverse a character that, except for their relation to the title subject, they would scarcely find place in one volume. In the present work an attempt is made, it is believed for the first time, to treat the classification of the phenomena associated with the study of Flight on a comprehensive and scientific basis.
The origin of the present work may be said to date from some experiments carried out in the year 1894. These experiments, which were primarily directed as a test of certain theoretical views which the author then advanced, resulted in the production of flying models of remarkable stability, whose equilibrium was not destroyed by an ordinary gale of wind.
As originally formulated the theory was incomplete and in many ways imperfect, but it has been developed from time to time during the last twelve years to an extent that to-day renders the approximately correct proportioning of an aerodrome[1] a matter of straightforward calculation.
The author has found the question of publication one of some difficulty. At first it was intended to arrange and publish the investigations simply in order of date, theoretical work being accompanied so far as possible by appropriate experimental
- ↑ A word derived from the Greek, άερο-δρὀμος (lit. "traversing the air" or "an air-runner"), proposed by the late Prof. Langley to denote a gliding appliance or flying machine; hence also aerodromics, the science specifically involved in the problems connected with free flight. The word aerodrome has been grossly misapplied by Continental writers to denote a balloon shed. The author considers that from its derivation the word aerodromics may be given a more comprehensive meaning than that originally proposed, perhaps even to include both the aerodynamics and aerodonetics of flight. The question is merely one of terminology. (Compare Glossary, p. 393.)
