Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1904-11-14

PRINCIPLE OF
THE "MAN-ANGEL"
Machine That Il Heavier Than
Its Displacement OfAir to Fly
As1hc Bird Flies
Special Correspondence,

Special Correspondence
ST LOUIS, Nov, li.-Ballwin's aer-,
ocycle, Benbow's celestial sidewheel.
er. and Francis colossal airship are
all based primarily upon TIE balloon
principle, have approximately cigar.
shaped gas bags. and derive their
motive power from gasolna engines.
But one OF the other aerial navicat-
ors at the worlds fair differs from
them in all these respects, having a
machine heavier than the air. with
bird.shaped gas bag and no mechan-
ical motor whatever.
This is the flying mashua. Man
Angel invented by Ava l.. Rey-
nolds, originally from Michigan, hut
now OF Los Angeles. Calf He has
been an inventor and student Of at
mospheric phenomena AMI action all
his life. but it was only within the
past year-since the opening Of the
Louisiana purchase exposition, In fact
that he has taken up the question
of aeronautics. Since ae went to
work on his first experimental ma
chine last May In Los Angeles, he
has greatly altered his system num-
ber of times, so that the present -
his sixth full-size working model, the
preceding ones having been destroy
ed as unsatisfactory.
Mr.. Reynolds insists that, unlike all
his competitors. he IL mot an aero
naut but merely an inventor" bul
that he has determined to stick TO the
aerial navigation problem until he
has effected its complete and fina
solution. He Is firmly convinced that
the only true method of navigating
the air Is one that involves the study
and application Of the principles in
volved in the flight of birds. He has
made some private experimental trips
at his home city, and expects to salts
fly the public Of the superior value O
his apparatus as soon as he begins
his trial trips at the exposition areo
drome.
All the peculiarities of his vesse
are derived from the fowls of the air
II has gas bag large enough to re
duce the weight to minimum, bn
not 10 altogether counteract or over
come It; and therefore the apparatus
must be kept in the air by It's owl
motion. Mr.. Reynolds lays grea
stress upon the design Of the gas bag
That of his machine, instead of beinl
oblong like the Baldwin or an clip
sold like the Boenbow, is of the SHAPE
of a Krag- g-Jorgensen rifle bullet, con
sisting Of two cones with cOinciden
bases. the rear one twice as Ions
(from vertey TO basel as that in front
SO that a vertical section taken lOngi
tudinally through the center woul'
resemble an old-fashioned kite flynn
on edge. The object OF this form |
to increase the dirigibility by throw
ing the center OF gravity into the from
portion, and at the same time to In
crease the speed by reducing to
. minimum the loss Of energy arisin
, from the friction of the surface OF tn
: bag with the air. A gas bag OF thi
shape, which is approximately that Q
a bird while In position for flight
shoulders its way. as It were, throug
the atmosphere. and when the air
once broken by the forwaoi portion
where the diameter is the creates
there Is no further friction. The tai
ering Of the balloon towards the rea
does away completely with rear SUI
| tion, as well as with skin friction b.
hind the point of mean diameter.
i The rest of the craft is constructe
/ with equal regard to the lessons {
/ professor bird. Just as every livin
' creature that flies does so with II
, flat surface towards the earth and d
. rectly in the plane Of the flight an
, parallel with IT, so the occupant {
the Reynolds vehicle must lie fac
downward with his feet TO the rea
BY means OF his upper limbs he oI
: crates the two wings, which are q
: tended on either side in a horizonti
plane Hike the plnions of bird The