The Mastery of the Air Part 8

This pioneer of aviation was M. Santos Dumont. For five or six years before his experiments with the aeroplane he had made a great many flights in balloons, and also in dirigible balloons. He was the son of well-to-do parents--his father was a successful coffee planter--and he had ample means to carry on his costly experiments.

Flying was Santos Dumont's great hobby. Even in boyhood, when far away in Brazil, he had been keenly interested in the work of Spencer, Green, and other famous aeronauts, and aeronautics became almost a pa.s.sion with him.

Towards the end of the year 1898 he designed a rather novel form of air-ship. The balloon was shaped like an enormous cigar, some 80 feet long, and it was inflated with about 6000 cubic feet of hydrogen. The most curious contrivance, however, was the motor. This was suspended from the balloon, and was somewhat similar to the small motor used on a motor-cycle. Santos Dumont sat beside this motor, which worked a propeller, and this curious craft was guided several times by the inventor round the Botanical Gardens in Paris.

About two years after these experiments the science of aeronautics received very valuable aid from M. Deutsch, a member of the French Aero Club. A prize of about L4000 was offered by this gentleman to the man who should first fly from the Aero Club grounds at Longchamps, double round the Eiffel Tower, and then sail back to the starting-place. The total distance to be flown was rather more than 3 miles, and it was stipulated that the journey--which could be made either in a dirigible air-ship or a flying machine--should be completed within half an hour.

This munificent offer at once aroused great enthusiasm among aeronauts and engineers throughout the whole of France, and, to a lesser degree, in Britain. Santos Dumont at once set to work on another air-ship, which was equipped with a much more powerful motor than he had previously used. In July, 1901, his arrangements were completed, and he made his first attempt to win the prize.

The voyage from Longchamps to the Eiffel Tower was made in very quick time, for a favourable wind speeded the huge balloon on its way. The pilot was also able to steer a course round the tower, but his troubles then commenced. The wind was now in his face, and his engine-a small motor engine of about 15 horse-power-was unable to produce sufficient power to move the craft quickly against the wind. The plucky inventor kept fighting against the-breeze, and at length succeeded in returning to his starting-point; but he had exceeded the time limit by several minutes and thus, was disqualified for the prize.

Another attempt was made by Santos Dumont about a month later. This time, however, he was more unfortunate, and he had a marvellous escape from death. As on the previous occasion he got into great difficulties when sailing against the wind on the return journey, and his balloon became torn, so that the gas escaped and the whole craft crashed down on the house-tops. Eyewitnesses of the accident expected to find the gallant young Brazilian crushed to death; but to their great relief he was seen to be hanging to the car, which had been caught upon the b.u.t.tress of a house. Even now he was in grave peril, but after a long delay he was rescued by means of a rope.

It might be thought that such an accident would have deterred the inventor from making further attempts on the prize; but the aeronaut seemed to be well endowed with the qualities of patience and perseverance and continued to try again. Trial after trial was made, and numerous accidents took place. On nearly every occasion it was comparatively easy to sail round the Tower, but it was a much harder task to sail back again.

At length in October, 1901, he was thought to have completed the course in the allotted time; but the Aero Club held that he had exceeded the time limit by forty seconds. This decision aroused great indignation among Parisians--especially among those who had watched the flight--many of whom were convinced that the journey had been accomplished in the half-hour. After much argument the committee which had charge of the race, acting on the advice of M. Deutsch, who was very anxious that the prize should be awarded to Santos Dumont, decided that the conditions of the flight had been complied with, and that the prize had been legitimately won. It is interesting to read that the famous aeronaut divided the money among the poor.

But important though Santos Dumont's experiments were with the air-ship, they were of even greater value when he turned his attention to the aeroplane.

One of his first trials with a heavier-than-air machine was made with a huge glider, which was fitted with floats. The curious craft was towed along the River Seine by a fast motor boat named the Rapiere, and it actually succeeded in rising into the air and flying behind the boat like a gigantic kite.

12th November, 1906, is a red-letter day in the history of aviation, for it was then that Santos Dumont made his first little flight in an aeroplane. This took place at Bagatelle, not far from Paris.

Two months before this the airman had succeeded in driving his little machine, called the Bird of Prey, many yards into the air, and "11 yards through the air", as the newspapers reported; but the craft was badly smashed. It was not until November that the first really satisfactory flight took place.

A description of this flight appeared in most of the European newspapers, and I give a quotation from one of them: "The aeroplane rose gracefully and gently to a height of about 15 feet above the earth, covering in this most remarkable dash through the air a distance of about 700 feet in twenty-one seconds.

"It thus progressed through the atmosphere at the rate of nearly 30 miles an hour. Nothing like this has ever been accomplished before....

The aeroplane has now reached the practical stage."

The dimensions of this aeroplane were:

Length 32 feet Greatest width 39 feet Weight with one pa.s.senger 465 pounds Speed 30 miles an hour

A modern aeroplane with airman and pa.s.senger frequently weighs over 1 ton, and reaches a speed of over 60 miles an hour.

It is interesting to note that Santos Dumont, in 1913--that is, only seven years after his flight in an aeroplane at Bagatelle made him world-famous--announced his intention of again taking an active part in aviation. His purpose was to make use of aeroplanes merely for pleasure, much as one might purchase a motor-car for the same object.

Could the intrepid Brazilian in his wildest dreams have foreseen the rapid advance of the last eight years? In 1906 no one had flown in Europe; by 1914 hundreds of machines were in being, in which the pilots were no longer subject to the wind's caprices, but could fly almost where and when they would.

Frenchmen have honoured, and rightly honoured, this gallant and picturesque figure in the annals of aviation, for in 1913 a magnificent monument was unveiled in France to commemorate his pioneer work.

CHAPTER XXVIII. M. Bleriot and the Monoplane

If the Wright brothers can lay claim to the t.i.tle of "Fathers of the Biplane", then it is certain that M. Bleriot, the gallant French airman, can be styled the "Father of the Monoplane."

For five years--1906 to 1910--Louis Bleriot's name was on everybody's lips in connection with his wonderful records in flying and skilful feats of airmanship. Perhaps the flight which brought him greatest renown was that accomplished in July, 1909, when he was the first man to cross the English Channel by aeroplane. This attempt had been forestalled, although unsuccessfully, by Hubert Latham, a daring aviator who is best known in Lancashire by his flight in 1909 at Blackpool in a wind which blew at the rate of nearly 40 miles an hour--a performance which struck everyone with wonder in these early days of aviation.

Latham attempted, on an Antoinette monoplane, to carry off the prize of L1000 offered by the proprietors of the Daily Mail. On the first occasion he fell in mid-Channel, owing to the failure of his motor, and was rescued by a torpedo-boat. His machine was so badly damaged during the salving operations that another had to be sent from Paris, and with this he made a second attempt, which was also unsuccessful. Meanwhile M. Bleriot had arrived on the scene; and on 25th July he crossed the Channel from Calais to Dover in thirty-seven minutes and was awarded the L1000 prize.

Bleriot's fame was now firmly established, and on his return to France he received a magnificent welcome. The monoplane at once leaped into favour, and the famous "bird man" had henceforth to confine his efforts to the building of machines and the organization of flying events. He has since established a large factory in France and inaugurated a flying school at Pau.

All the time that the Wrights were experimenting with their glider and biplane in America, and the Voisin brothers were constructing biplanes in France, Bleriot had been giving earnest attention to the production of a real "bird" machine, provided with one pair of FLAPPING wings. We know now that such an aeroplane is not likely to be of practical use, but with quiet persistence Bleriot kept to his task, and succeeded in evolving the famous Antoinette monoplane, which more closely resembles a bird than does any other form of air-craft.

In the ill.u.s.tration of the Bleriot monoplane here given you will notice that there is one main plane, consisting of a pair of highly-cambered wings; hence the name "MONOplane". At the rear of the machine there is a much smaller plane, which is slightly cambered; this is the elevating plane, and it can be tilted up or down in order to raise or lower the machine. Remember that the elevating plane of a biplane is to the front of the machine and in the monoplane at the rear. The small, upright plane G is the rudder, and is used for steering the machine to the right or left. The long narrow body or framework of the monoplane is known as the FUSELAGE.

By a close study of the ill.u.s.tration, and the description which accompanies it, you will understand how the machine is driven. The main plane is twisted, or warped, when banking, much in the same way that the Wright biplane is warped.

Far greater speed can be obtained from the monoplane than from the biplane, chiefly because in the former machine there is much less resistance to the air. Both height and speed records stand to the credit of the monoplane.

The enormous difference in the speeds of monoplanes and biplanes can be best seen at a race meeting at some aerodrome. Thus at Hendon, when a speed handicap is in progress, the slow biplanes have a start of one or two laps over the rapid little monoplanes in a six-lap contest, and it is most amusing to see the latter dart under, or over, the more c.u.mbersome biplane. Recently however, much faster biplanes have been built, and they bid fair to rival the swiftest monoplanes in speed.

There is, however, one serious drawback to the use of the monoplane: it is far more dangerous to the pilot than is the biplane. Most of the fatal accidents in aviation have been caused through mishaps to monoplanes or their engines, and chiefly for this reason the biplane has to a large extent supplanted the monoplane in warfare. The biplane, too, is better adapted for observation work, which is, after all, the chief use of air-craft.

In a later chapter some account will be given of the three types of aeroplane which the war has evolved--the general-purposes machine, the single-seater "fighter", and those big bomb-droppers, the British Handley Page and the German Gotha.

CHAPTER XXIX. Henri Farman and the Voisin Biplane

The coming of the motor engine made events move rapidly in the world of aviation. About the year 1906 people's attention was drawn to France, where Santos Dumont was carrying out the wonderful experiments which we have already described. Then came Henri Farman, who piloted the famous biplane built by the Voisin brothers in 1907; an aeroplane destined to bring world-wide renown to its clever constructors and its equally clever and daring pilot.

There were notable points of distinction between the Voisin biplane and that built by the Wrights. The latter, as we have seen, had two propellers; the former only one. The launching skids of the Wright biplane gave place to wheels on Farman's machine. One great advantage, however, possessed by the early Wright biplane over its French rivals, was in its greater general efficiency. The power of the engine was only about one-half of the power required in certain of the French designs.

This was chiefly due to the use of the launching rail, for it needed much greater motor power to make a machine rise from the ground by its own motor engine than when it received a starting lift from a falling weight. Even in our modern aeroplanes less engine power is required to drive the craft through the air than to start from the ground.

Farman achieved great fame through his early flights, and, on 13th January, 1908, at the flying ground at Issy, in France, he won the prize of L2000, offered by MM. Deutsch and Archdeacon to the first aviator who flew a circular kilometre. In July of the same year he won another substantial prize given by a French engineer, M. Armengaud, to the first pilot who remained aloft for a quarter of an hour.

Probably an even greater performance was the cross-country flight made by Farman about three months later. In the flight he pa.s.sed over hills, valleys, rivers, villages, and woods on his journey from Chalons to Rheims, which he accomplished in twenty minutes.

In the early models of the Voisin machine there were fitted between the two main planes a number of vertical planes, as shown clearly in the ill.u.s.tration facing p. 160. It was thought that these planes would increase the stability of the machine, independent of the skill of the operator, and in calm weather they were highly effective. Their great drawback, however, was that when a strong side wind caught them the machine was blown out of its course.

Subsequently Farman considerably modified the early-type Voisin biplane, as shown by the ill.u.s.tration facing p. 160. The vertical planes were dispensed with, and thus the idea of automatic stability was abandoned.

But an even greater distinction between the Farman biplane and that designed by the Wrights was in the adoption of a system of small movable planes, called AILERONS, fixed at extremities of the main planes, instead of the warping controls which we have already described. The ailerons, which are adapted to many of our modern aeroplanes, are really balancing flaps, actuated by a control lever at the right side of the pilot's seat, and the principle on which they are worked is very similar to that employed in the warp system of lateral stability.

CHAPTER x.x.x. A Famous British Inventor

About the time that M. Bleriot was developing his monoplane, and Santos Dumont was astonishing the world with his flying feats at Bagatelle, a young army officer was at work far away in a secluded part of the Scottish Highlands on the model of an aeroplane. This young man was Lieutenant J. W. Dunne, and his name has since been on everyone's lips wherever aviation is discussed. Much of Lieutenant Dunne's early experimental work was done on the Duke of Atholl's estate, and the story goes that such great secrecy was observed that "the tenants were enrolled as a sort of bodyguard to prevent unauthorized persons from entering". For some time the War Office helped the inventor with money, for the numerous tests and trials necessary in almost every invention before satisfactory results are achieved are very costly.

Probably the inventor did not make sufficiently rapid progress with his novel craft, for he lost the financial help and goodwill of the Government for a time; but he plodded on, and at length his plans were sufficiently advanced for him to carry on his work openly. It must be borne in mind that at the time Dunne first took up the study of aviation no one had flown in Europe, and he could therefore receive but little help from the results achieved by other pilots and constructors.

But in the autumn of 1913 Lieutenant Dunne's novel aeroplane was the talk of both Europe and America. Innumerable trials had been made in the remote flying ground at Eastchurch, Isle of Sheppey, and the machine became so far advanced that it made a cross-Channel flight from Eastchurch to Paris. It remained in France for some time, and Commander Felix, of the French Army, made many excellent flights in it. Unfortunately, however, when flying near Deauville, engine trouble compelled the officer to descend; but in making a landing in a very small field, not much larger than a tennis-court, several struts of the machine were damaged. It was at once seen that the aeroplane could not possibly be flown until it had been repaired and thoroughly overhauled.

To do this would take several days, especially as there were no facilities for repairing the craft near by, and to prevent anyone from making a careful examination of the aeroplane, and so discovering the secret features which had been so jealously guarded, the machine was smashed up after the engine had been removed.