and it came down almost vertically into the water. Darkness had
come before the engineer, who had been in extreme danger, could aid
in the recovery of the aerodrome. The boat and machine had drifted
apart, and one of the tugs in its zeal to render assistance had fastened
a rope to the frame of the machine in the reverse position from what
it should have been attached, and had broken the frame entirely in
two. Owing to lack of funds further trials were abandoned (see
Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, 1904, p. 122).
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| Fig. 48.—Sir H. Maxim’s Flying Machine. |
Sir Hiram S. Maxim, like Langley, employed a staff of highly skilled workmen. His machine (fig. 48) consisted of a platform, on which stood a large water-tube boiler, a number of concavo-convex aeroplanes arranged in tiers like shelves, each making a slight upward angle with the horizon, two very large vertical screws placed aft and propelled by steam engines, tanks for the storage of water, naphtha, &c. The boiler was especially noteworthy. The water was contained in about 2000 bent copper tubes, only 38 in. in external diameter, heated by over 7000 gas jets arranged in rows. The fuel was naphtha or gasoline. Steam could be got up in the short space of half a minute. The steam-generating appliances, which weighed only 1000 ℔ in all, were placed in the front of the machine. The motive power was provided by a pair of two-cylinder, compound engines, poised about 8 ft. from the ground, and about 6 ft. apart. Each of them was independently governed, and furnished together 363 horse-power in actual effect, an amount which, considering that their total weight was only 600 ℔, gave the extraordinary efficiency of over 1 horse-power for every 2 ℔ weight. The high and the low pressure cylinders were 5 and 8 in. in diameter respectively, and the stroke was 12 in. When going at full speed these engines conferred 425 revolutions per minute on the two gigantic propellers that drove the machine along. These were in appearance like two-bladed marine propellers except that they were square instead of rounded at the ends, and were broad and thin. They were built from overlapping strips of American pine, planed smooth and covered with glued canvas. They weighed 135 ℔ each, the length of each blade being close upon 9 ft. and the width at the ends 512 ft. The pitch was 16 ft. They were carefully stayed by steel wires to their shafts, or the first revolution would have snapped them off short. The material of which the framework was built was thin steel tubing, exceedingly light. All the wires and ties were of the best steel, capable of standing a strain of 100 tons to the square inch. The body of the machine was oblong in shape, with the fore-part cut away like a water-chute boat, and a long counter at the stern over which the propellers revolved. It had canvas stretched all over it. High overhead, like a gigantic awning, was the slightly concavo-convex main aeroplane, tilted towards the front at an imperceptible angle, and stretched taut. Its area was 1400 sq. ft., increased by side wings to 2700 sq. ft. There were also side aeroplanes arranged in tiers, and large aeroplanes in front, which were pivoted and served for vertical steering. The machine was strengthened in every direction by vertical and other supports and securely wired together at all points. It was furnished with four strong flanged wheels and ran along a light broad-gauge (9 ft.) railway track, 1800 ft. long, in the hope that when the speed reached a certain point it would leave the rails, but it was prevented from rising more than an inch or so by four arms, or outriggers, furnished with wheels, which projected from its sides and ran under an inverted wooden upper or safety track outside the railway track proper.
At a trial carried out in 1894 at Bexley, Kent, only the main aeroplane, the fore and aft rudders, and the top and bottom side planes were in position. After everything had been got in readiness, careful observers were stationed along the track, and the machine was connected to a dynamometer. The engines were then started and the pump set so as to deliver over 5000 ℔ of water per hour into the boiler. The gas was then carefully turned on until the pressure amounted to 310 ℔ per sq. in., and the dynamometer showed a thrust of more than 2100 ℔. A small safety-valve placed in the steam pipe had been adjusted so as to blow off slightly at 310 ℔ and with a strong blast at 320 ℔. The signal being given to let go, the machine darted forward at a terrific pace, and the safety-valve ceased to blow. More gas was instantly turned on, and before the machine had advanced 300 ft., the steam had mounted to 320 ℔ per sq. in., and the safety-valve was blowing off a steady blast. When the machine had travelled only a few hundred feet, all four of the small outrigger wheels were fully engaged, which showed that the machine was lifting at least 8000 ℔ The speed rapidly increased until when the machine had run about 900 ft. one of the rear axletrees, which were of 2 in. steel tubing, doubled up and set the rear end of the machine completely free. When the machine had travelled about 1000 ft., the left-hand forward wheel became disengaged from the safety track, and shortly after this the right-hand wheel broke the upper track—3 in. by 9 in. Georgia pine—and a plank became entangled in the framework of the machine. Steam had already been shut off, and the machine coming to rest fell directly to the ground, all four of its wheels sinking deeply into the turf without leaving other marks. Before making this run the wheels which were to engage the upper track were painted, and the paint left by them on the upper track indicated the exact point where the machine lifted. The area of the aeroplanes was very nearly 4000 sq. ft. and the total lifting effect was fully 10,000 ℔. The planes therefore lifted 2.5 ℔ per sq. ft., and 5 ℔ for each pound thrust. Nearly half of the power of the engines was lost in the screw slip. This showed that the diameter of the screws was not great enough; it should have been at least 22 ft.
In 1897 M. C. Ader, who had already tested, with indifferent results, two full-sized flying machines, built a third apparatus with funds furnished by the French government. This reproduced the structure of a bird with almost servile imitation, save that traction was obtained by two screw-propellers. The steam engine weighed about 7 ℔ per horse-power, but the equilibrium of the apparatus was defective.
Largely with the view of studying the problem of maintaining equilibrium, several experimenters, including Otto Lilienthal, Percy Pilcher and Octave Chanute, cultivated gliding flight by means of aeroplanes capable of sustaining a man. They depended mainly on the utilization of natural air currents, trusting for stability and balance to movements in their own bodies, or in portions of their machines which they could control. They threw themselves from natural or artificial elevations, or, facing the wind, they ran or were dragged forwards against it until they got under way and the wind caught hold of their aeroplanes. To Lilienthal in Germany belongs the double credit of demonstrating the superiority of arched over flat surfaces, and of reducing gliding flight to regular practice. He made over 2000 glides safely, using gravity as his motive power, with concave, batlike wings, in some cases with superposed surfaces (fig. 49). It was with a machine of the latter type that he was upset by a sudden gust of wind and killed in 1896. Pilcher in England improved somewhat on Lilienthal’s apparatus, but used the same general method of restoring the balance, when endangered, by shifting the weight of the operator’s body. He too made several hundred glides in safety, but finally was thrown over by a gust of wind and killed in 1899. Chanute in America confined his endeavours to the production of automatic stability, and made the surfaces movable instead of the man. He used several different forms of apparatus, including one with five superposed pairs of wings and a tail (fig. 50) and another with two continuous aeroplanes, one above the other (fig. 51). He made over 1000 glides without accident.
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| Fig. 49.—Lilienthal’s Gliding Machine. |
Similar experiments were meanwhile conducted by Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton, Ohio, in whose hands the glider developed into a successful flying machine. These investigators began their work in 1900, and at an early stage introduced two characteristic features—a horizontal rudder in front for steering in the vertical plane, and the flexing or bending of the ends of
