The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-01-10

Special Dispatch to the New York Herald. Nl HICAGo.-T expect to fly from
 S Chicago to Washington on April ~ 23 next, the eightieth anniversary of my birth. I shall start at o'clock in the morning and will deliver into the hands of President Roosevelt before dark of the same day a message from Mayor Edward F. Dunne"
 This Is the programme which F. M. Ma han, well known inventor and meehan- ical engineer of this city. has mapped out for himself. That he will be able to carry 1t through he has not the slightest doubt. MT. Mahan sat in his office at No. 793 Lake street this afternoon and detailed with serene confidence just how he in- tends to navigate the air a distance of 900 miles in twelve hours.
 T have gone to the creatures of the air-to the birds-to learn the secret of flying" he said. "The man who does not stick close to the lessons of nature in aerial navigation is bound to fail. And what do l find when I look at the birds !? First of all, and l believe the greatest requisite to successful flying, is unerring equilibrium. Add to this the necessary ascenslonal and propulsive power. dirigi- bilty and precautions against accident, and the thing Is solved. l am absolutely certain that the navigator in which purpose going to Washington fulflls. all the necessary conditions
 Tn my navigator equilibrium is ob- tained by the peculiar shape of the gas holder, all the gravity pull leading to a central point of the machine and directly under the propeller wings This essential assured, can give my whole attention to the matters of bouyancy. propulsion and direction.
 Naturally, those who undertake to fly through the air wish to be fortified against accident that would send them crashing to the earth. My plan Is to have a gas holder of sufficient buoyancy to overcome 95 per cent of the earths gray ity on the machine and whatever load 1t carries. The other per cent. of course. would be met by the wings of the machine in motion. In case anything should hap pen to the engine which operates the wings dhese wings being at once filters and propellers) the 30 per cent of resist ance inherent in the gas would allow the machine to settle to the earth so gently that no injury to the aeronaut could re- suit. In such emergency the wings themselves would be used as parachutes, still further breaking the force of the drop If the machinery and the gas holder should meet with accident simultaneously there would be more serious trouble, but such a contingency would be very re- mote,
 What is the general principle of buoy ancy, propulsion and dlrigibility in your machine?
 Aside from the gas, used it is exactly that of the wild geese used to see flying over the prairies of Missouri when I was a boy and settling into the grain fields. For years l have made study of the flight of birds. l have watched the gulls on Lake Michigan and the pigeons in the streets of Chicago.
 Without intending slang, my navigator will be bird The gas holder or body of the machine will be so shaped as to offer the least resistance to the air. The wings, which will be operated by gaso- lene engine from the car by means of sprocket chains and wheels, will be pro- vided with numerous air valves, which will open and close on the same principle as the feathers of the wild goose. For my flight to Washington contemplate a gas holder about seventy feet long, eighteen feet wide and twenty-two feet high, and tapering fore and aft to diam