Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-08-18
GOOD DEAL WORK DONE
EXPERTS WOULD STEAL MARCH
ON NEWsPAPERMEN.
To That End They May Remove Parts
of Aerodrome Under Cover
of Darkness.

an experiment.
A good deal OF work was done on the
launching car. Its upper body has not
yet been replaced.
A part of the derrick was removed. PROB
ably for repairs, TO the interior OF the
houseboat
The big aerodrome is still suspended in
the center Of the interior from the ceiling.
1t Ia so adjusted that 1t can be taken down
In short order.
For the sake of secrecy the experts may
remove it's parts under cover OF darkness.
1t could be hoisted above some night soon.
where 1t would be in readiness the next
morning for an early test
Prof Langley's houseboat was visited
this afternoon by another houseboat. the
Criselda Of Washington. towed by the tug
Camilla.
The visitor has a party Of ladies and
gentlemen aboard. She was towed In
loop around the "Buzzard." while the oc-
cupants of both strange looking vessels
watched each other narrowly.
The Criselda then continued up the river.
The tug Key came to Whitewater this
morning to bring Private Allison. who
went to Washington on the IL o'clock train.
Experts Are Sensitive.
The Smithsonian airship experts are SEN
sitive about having Prof. Langleys aero
drome spoken of as being associated In any
way with the balloon class of air voyagers.
To this the inventor himself is by no
means an exception
He rarely loses an opportunity to empha-
size the essential difference between his
flying machines and the balloon. Prof.
Langley never experimental with bodies
lighter than the air in his efforts to evolve
an airship.
From the first Of his studies he had the
conviction that for success in aerial naviga-
ton the world must hook to a source
tirely different from the apparatus lighter
than the air. and hence subject to defec-
ton from its course by every change in the
direction of the wind.
He has never had any confidence in the
utility of the balloon. His dictum Is that
an airShip must be heavier than the air
in which 1t moves in order to render 1t
manageable.
Prof. Langley has worked all along on
this plan. and he claims the distinction of
having produced the first machine Of this
nature which has been made to sustain
itself in horizontal flight until 1t covered a
distance of nearly a mile.
Inertia Of the Air.
The underlying principle rests upon the
inertia of the air. coupled with its elastic
ity. In the claims of Prof. Langley for his
invention it is presupposed that the ma
chine is not to be maintained absolutely
motionless in the air
In fact. one of the most important of all
the physical laws involved Is that which
makes an increased velocity conducive to
the support of the machine. Studying the
Inertia of the air Prof. Langley saw
that the space directly beneath a body
railing vertically offers more or less re-
sistance to the passage of the body In a
given period of time. II. then. he reasoned,
the same body in the same time could be
made TO pass horizontally over many times
that quantity Of air 1t would receive the
support OF the multiplied inertia
1t seemed to him to be matter of math-
ematics. and he is working it out that way
BY no means does Prof. Langley claim to
have now an airship that can start right
Off solely under the impulse of its own
engines to begin an aerial flight.
The initial velocity from an outside
source is essential at this stage of the de-
velopment The time may come when an
airshp can get right up. so to speak, and
soar away. but it is not yet in sight even
to Prof Langley.
Position Of the Navigator.
OF prime Importance among the many
problems concerning the fight of Prof.
Langley's big aerodrome is the position of
the navigator in the car and the influence
his body will have upon the process of bal
ancing.
Never before in all of Prof. Langley's long
course of experiments has a flying machine
containing human passenger been launch
ed In fact. not until recently has the In
ventor attempted the construction of a ma
chine large enough to carry navigator.
All OF his aerodromes heretofore expert
mented with have been models with a the
oretical lifting capacity far in excess of
that which they were actually found TO
possess. and which, consequently, was not
taxed with any additional weight
indeed, until recent years. it was not part
of the inventors immediate plan to produce
an airship with capacity for carrying a
man. The big sixty-five-foot machine soon
TO be tested Is the first one built on the
principles OF aerial navigation as fnyesti-
gated and expounded by Prof. Langley
with human conveying capacity
To certain extent its track has been ex-
plored by the models. but. beyond these
into vast unknown. The distinction of a
true explorer. then. will belong to the big
aerodrome.
A Weighty Problem.
How to place the body OF the navigator
% that he will not interfere with the all
important matter of balancing. but will. on
the other hand. aid the mighty factor of
human intelligence to the success of this
process. is one of the weightIest problems
which the scientists have to deal with In
working out the plans for the first test of
the big machine.
All along throughout his extended obser-
VatlonS or the soaring bird Pros Langley
has comprehended clearly the wonderful in
nuence in the continuous act of balancing
exerted by the ever active instinct of the
bird.
Having been led primarily In his study Of
the wind to the theoretical as well as par
sdoxical conclusion that properly con-
structed body properly disposed for free
flight. might be maintained under certain
conditions in an ordinary wind. and even
advance against II without any expendi-
ture of energy from within. the inventor
proceeded with experiments with stuffed
birds. attempting to initiate the flight of
the living ones.
He was soon. however led to the conclu-
sion that a stuffed bird could not be made
TO soar except at speeds very much great
er than those maintained by the living
birds
Adjustment Of Wings to Air Currents
There appeared to be little n any motive
power exerted by such flying creatures rs
the buzzard. though 1t was often seen to
soar rapidly. and the professor was led to
the conclusion that the strange and subtle
factor which enabled It to go resided some
how In the continual instructive adjustment
OF the wings to the varying air currents
II was plainly seen. too, thar no me-
chanical contrtvance outside the purely