New-York tribune., 1906-12-23
FLYING MACHINES.
S:r Hiram Marin Thinks They WI1
Decide Battles. !.

The future Of the asroplans IS gIo5eoe vnion
IS occupying the serious attention OF aeronAutA.
and thousands OF would-be aeronauts. IN sysry
corner OF the globe. That the conquest OF tho air
will before long be an accomplished fact has re-
Gently become widespread conviction. but at tho
same time. those best qualified to judge consider
that aerial flight will not be perfected easily
soon many people suppose.
Sir Hiram Maxim forecasts that II win ns sors
time before machine will be invented to travel
200 miles.
My own opinion" Sir Hiram told the writer,
sis that II. within the next eighteen months
years. aerOpane Is discovered which viii travel
for say. thirty forty miles, excellent progress
will have been made.
There are. OF course. number OF technical d,ss
fculties which the building OF a flying ma
chine to be matter OF considerable uncertainty
The chief problem. perhaps. be ovsrcoms Is tosl
make the lifting effect OF the aeropIans greater
than the weight OF the machine; but, artsr con-.
Quoting many experiments some time ago proved
that this drawback is by means insurnount-
able one am Of opinion that the most perfect
flying machine yet constructed has been made by
the Wright brothers in America In its initial trial
trip this machine remained in the air for fully
thirty minutes without the aid even OF gas bag.
while il also attained velocity OF forty miles
hour. and. better still. it's steering apparatus
proved almost perfect
The Importance of aerial fight in warfare can
not possibly be Overrated, and the French govern
menL showed great enterprise when IL purchased
the Wright brothers machine Other nations. In
deed, VIII surely have to recognize the immense
possibilities or nying maCnlneS weapons or war
than balloons. Indeed, II does call for the
fate OF some great european power being decided
at very distant date in midair
Il have been told that Lord Kelvin not many
years ago stated as his opinion that it was
. rvingc machine could ever be constructsd thouxh
personally have strong doubts about the authsn-
tlcty of this story Sttn, II is an undoubted fact
that not long ago many far less Distinguished
nd some 'g4s rs5 Sa on S ea % 2 sT
went SO far as 10 point out 20 me various reasons
the same time they expressed the opinion that all
ure merely mention this 10 show that il IL only
quite recently that the possibilities OF the aeropans
AT the moment however. there seems TO be
living machines. ana 1 have heard iS said fhat a.
aeroplanes will before long be used for purposes OF
In the frsr place. the construction OF flying
Again ai,hough time will doubtless do much 10
lessen this ddicuty it is impossible 70 ignore or
underrate the danger which must attend any at,
tempt t,,t to g conquer On G the TH air
"trip in a balloon than In flying machine. howevp-
perfect the latter may be. for would be short
y an acsaate dcea %hia i 6s az sns
; moment TO become unpleasantly rapid.
But for military purposes there will always b.
found plenty Of men prepared TO take big risks be-
be attained On the o.hor hand, few people. Tor
an aerial flight across to Calais in a machine whica
The waves of the Channel at any moment
oen5 a1ys W;f as 5. before said made many expert.
ing scientists have watched my EFFORTS IN this
direction. including Lord Kelvin and Lord Paw
leigh Lord Kelvin described my machines "a.
veritabe museums OF invention
Not long ago had a captive fyfnS rnschln.
constructed at my residence. On the day OF the
when the engineers got into the boats and tss
aeroplaneS commenced to work. the wind. which
was blowing at about forty miles an hour so IN.
creased the speed that the engineers found thero.
selves going at a rate OF nearly eighty niles an
hour. I fancy those engineers uncorur,oa,v ,v.
glad to find themselves on dry land again
To mind the real future OF flying ulachh,en
consists IN their adaptation for military purpoeec
and have strong conviction that the day wtli
| Tft-BitS.