The Portland daily press., 1896-05-23
TO TRAVEL IN THE AIR.
Chicago Men Who Are Experimenting
with Flying Machines.

Whom Prof. Langley Achieves His Fri
umph Several Westerners Expe ct to be
Right Next to Him"-The -Four
schooIs-Gen. sooy Smiths Idea
Pynchon's Scheme of Propulsion by
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Soaring Planes.
When Prof. Langley of the Smithsonian
Institution at last sweeps through the
mir in his aerondrome, repres enting the
final triumph of seronautics as a praoti-
cal science, there are several people in
Chicago and the great West who, to use
Mr. Fadden's expressive phrase, ex pect
to be right next TO him." Not only
have Chicago people made contributions
of the first Importance to the study of
the great problem Of aerial flight in or
iginal inventions covering the entire
scheme of flying and in working out
some of the special phases of Mechanics
and engineering presented, but to %
prominent Chicago engineer belongs the
credit of having been the first to collect
in systematic form al the more import
ant theories and experiments in aerial
navigation, from the disastrous ex pleits
Of Simon, the magician, and the scrsw-
propelled device of leonardo da Vinci
down to the brilliant achieve ments of
Hiram S. Maxim and Prof. Langley.
Octave Chanute, the author of the work
referred to, was formerly President of
the American Society of Civil Engineers
and is now one of its most distinguished
members. Referring to the experiments
OF Prof. Langley he quotes the professor
as saying: "The most important general
Inference from the experiments as a
whole is that SO far as the nero power to
sustain heavy bodies in the air by me-
chanical flight goes suoh mechanical
flight is possible with engines we now
possess, since effective steam engines have
lately been built weighing less than ten
pounds to one horse power, and tina ex-
pertinent shows that if we multiply the
small planes which have been actually
used or assume a larger plane to have
approximately the same properties as
small planes, one horse power rightly ap-
piled can sustain over 200 pounds in the
air at a horizontal velocity of about
forty miles per hour and still more
at still higher velocities.
Mr.. Chanute and Mr.. Drzewiteki,
Russian engineer, have been studying the
requirements of fight along similar lines
and In some respects have arrived at con-
illusions which agree very closely, but,
while Mr.. Drzewiteki estimates that
To a hr1r6Q of
including its own weight, through the
air at d speed of twenty-five miles an
hour would require only 5.S7 horse-pow-
er, Mr.. Chanute's investigation of the
power expended by the common pigeon
at this velocity and with its much great
er proportion Of hull illustrates that an
equally efficient large machine would
need TO- 40 horsepower to carry one ton
at speed of TIVE nty-fve miles an hour.
Both figures are regarded as very en-
couraging by aeronauts and they seem
to ba we'll oorroborated by the systema tic
Investigations bota of Prof. Langley and
MIR. Maxim. Mr.. Maxim, who has ex-
perimented with much larger planes than
Prof. Langley, concludes that as much
as LOO pOuHus nay L8 suSUiiucU NY Juo
expenditure Of one horsepower and under
certain conditions as much as $50 pounds.
THE FOUR SCHOOLS.
The students of and experimsnters in
aerial navigation are divided into what
may be called four schools. Omittinz
"passive balloonists," who employ no
motive power and make no endeavor to
control their course through the air
more than may be effected by chooaing
favorable currents, the worksrr on the
flying machine problem are roughly d.
vided into ''active balloonists," active
'aviators," and the "passive aviators. -
Each of these schools has its followers in
the West, and there are besides several
theorists whose ideas do not fit in with
any of the schools. A prominent repre-
sentative of the active balloonist school
is Z. j. Pennington, whose continuance
for riding through the air was exhibited
in the old Exposition Building some
years ago. The active balloonists pro-
pose to employ the utmost power in their
endeavoT to cope with the prevailing
winds and to pursue their course in anv
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