Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-04-26

jockeyfng and rivalry retard its evolu-
ton. All want Farman. II they can't
Do you know the history Of the Farman
aeroplane? Delagrange. a Paris sculp-
tor. thought of coupling two Wright GID
ers. front and tail. and putting in a
motor. The Voisin brothers. engineers.
made all the calculations and built the
machine for Delagrange. And it flew
weakly. Farman. quite new to the SUBJ
ject, simply ordered the Voisins to dupli-
cate 1t for him. Delagrange being willing.
When he took delivery the A. motor
the Paris market. Moreover. Bleriot Of
the Voisin firm, rich young man. owned
the mass Of A. stock.
Wanted Farman's Order.
In force and lightness. tested on the
ground. the famous mark showed mag
nificent. Weighing less than three
pounds per horsepower it was the first
Of the eight cylinder type. without fly
wheel. It had no carburator. for the
sake Of lightness. Thus its carburation
was delicate and at vital steering mo-
ments Farman had to turn round and let
In more or less air!
It was water cooled. In q hmsy aero
plane frame the vibrating motor would
now twist a tube or pinch q joint COM
promise the water cooling. or an essence
weaken-letting Farman promptly down
to earth.
Thus. the A. motor that gave fifty
horsepower in a rigid testing chassis
air. some days more, some less. and
Farman struggled with that motor-while
the As strove to improve 1t. He had
engaged to win the Archdeacon prize
with it. and he finally succeeded on a
very cold day. which prevented its
hah ffual hAatjn1f
Meanwhile. the two other world-famed
motor firms announced aeroplane-motors
almost ready. That Is. you could give
your orders. But the first order they
How could it be otherwise? The vet
eran Santos-Dumont. personally rich be-
yond temptation. was known to be .
crank In avoiding anything that looked
like imitation. he would no more fol-
low Delasranse or Farman's double
Chanute planes than he would copy
Bieriot or Esnault-Pelterie's "winged
boats" the dangerous single plane form
invented by Langley.
Santos was thought to be wasting time
on = long-tailed eccentricity with out
stretched wings above a small tricycle..
It was little. light and dainty, but the
motor men had small faith in 1t.
The Dangerous Single Plane.
NJ Bleriot practically owns the A. Mo-
steadiest. latest Of their aeroplane
he thinks Bleriot will never have the
nerve to learn to balance that single
plane. to which he is so obstinately
welded. Every time that NJ. Bleriot
starts OF the motor takes his winged
boat" Swimming 20 terribly UP into the
sky that NJ. Bleriot gets naturally scared
and just cuts of the contact. He Is the
t. yh@ hnr <4~ r,~l,
force. If he should try his splendid motor
in a Chanute double plane. initiated from
Farman or Delegrange. why Farman
would revenge himself by dropping the
A motor once for ALL Therefore
The Count de La vaulx has an i'm
mense ballooning reputation. but he. too.
Is welded to the dangerous single plane.
The big motor makers look on him as
second choice for immediate advertise
Of q new C-motor. 1t Is. perhaps, also
why he has done little more than prac-
tice falling, with q makeshift irregular
c. motor. To this end he wears a
his mattress snugly round him.
Esnault-P elterie is himself . motor
maker
He was the first flying man in Europe
to make q turn in the air. He does figure
Fights and s-shaped evolutions in q sin
wings, whose slant can be changed while
he scars Having less power than Bleriot,
he does not make Bleriot's awful dashes
At thirty miles an hour on his wheels he
changes the slant OF his wings and quits
the earth.
Keeps His Motor Secret.
He fiits at twenty feet altitude. He
turns In swift curves. darts. rounds, re-
turns and curves again. with inward
slants and regained equilibrium-like a
wobbiy learner on bike: but he always |
comes back to earth in q short time. HIS |
motor yields irregulafiy. And Esnauit- |
Pelterie would rather risk being beaten |
while he unkeTs ct that motor than make !