Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1908-08-22
SAILING IN THE AIR.
Common as AutomobiIing In Ten
Years, Says Henri Farman.
MAY BE THE FAD FOR CALLS.

French Aeronaut Says Airship Flights
Depend on Perfection of Motors and
Aerial Balance Problem - Winged
Machine to Be the Most Practical.
Henri Farman, the noted French
aeronaut, who is to give some exhibit
tons in his aeroplane at Brighton
Beach, New York, has written an ar
ticle on the future of the flying ma
chine for the New York American in
which he says:
Flying will be as common as auto
MODELLING within ten years. It will
take another decade to perfect the fly
ing machine for practical and safe
use. 1t took several years to bring the
bicycle end the automobile to that
state, and now the energies of the
mechanician and the aeronaut are
turned to the perfecting Of the flying
machine.
Some people will always remain too
timid to go up into the air, just as
some are even now too timid to enter
motor car Not every one had the
courage or the ability to ride bicycle
either.
1t will become quite a fad, I be-
lieve, for a man to take his wife and
friends a hundred or two hundred
miles in his flying machine to call on
some friend in the country. The fight
Of the imagination that conceives such
a plan will be bridged within ten
years, believe. The novelty Of such
trips will wear off just as does the
novelty of an auto jaunt
Air sailing will remain in it's ex-
perimental stages only a few years
longer. The time for experimentation
! is passing rapidly.
Half the solution Of the air sailing
problem rests on the perfection of the
motor. My motor weighs over 200
pounds, one-fifth the entire weight of
/ the machine with me in it. 1t is fifty
FIVE horsepower, but only three-ffths
Of that can be used. Half of the avail
able power is applied to the propeller,
which leaves me only nineteen horse
power for driving purposes.
That is the defect Of the present mo-
tor, on the remedying of which prog
ress in air navigation depends. When
I can increase the horsepower without
| increasing the weight the problem will
| be solved. For instance, my present
outfit weighs $50 kilos, or over LOO
pounds. The available horsepower of
the motor is thirty-eight. When / can
reduce the whole outfit to twenty kilos
| in weight to one horsepower in use,
half the difficulty of flying will be over
come.
The other half lies in the problem of
aerial balance. The machine must bal
ance itself automatically like bird
before absolute safety in fight can be
guaranteed. The only way such mas
terry of wind and air can be obtained
is by the successful imitation Of the
bird. A machine of the monoplane
type-a winged flying machine-will be
the practical airship of the future.
have been studying the monoplane ma
chine and will begin the construction
| of one as soon as l return to France.
| My aerop1ane is too big and clumsy
for practical use. l am also expert
menting with flying fish" type Of
machine, with three planes, one partly
over the other, like staircase, but l
pin my faith in the practicability of
air sailing on the monoplane machine.
had a splendid opportunity to study
the models for this type during my
trip across the ocean on the TOuraine.
/ watched the sea gulls from the deck
all day long. They can remain abso-
lutely motionless overhead as If pin
ned to the atmosphere. In five years
that secret will be solved l say five
years because aeronauts are all ear
nestly trying to solve the problem Of
balance now. Judging by past events,
1t ought to be completely mastered in
five years.
My faith in the solution of both the
motor and the balance problems is
best illustrated by the promise made
my wife the other day. l told her she
would enjoy the novel sensation some
day of breakfasting with me in Paris,
lunching in Marseilles and dining on
the African coast all in the same day.
The successful flying machine will
never rival the railroad for commercial
utility. 1t may succeed the automo-
bile as an instrument of recreation.
and I dare say the usual quota Of
brave lives will be sacrificed to make
it an available means of travel, but it
can never supplant the railroad.