, 1909-05-19

on her way back to the starting point, the
aviator bringing her to earth with the grace
full and unhesitating motion of a bird.
Hourly flights of four miles or more are but
Incidents, and the a~viators, Messrs. J. A. d.
McCurdy and F.. W. Baldwin, are as much
az home seated on the mac inc flying
through the air as is the ordinary individual
sitting at the parlour tireside.
In October 1907 DR.. Alexander Graham
Bell organised an association, TO be known
as the Aerial Experimental Association.
The association consisted of five members.
and had as its object the building and i'm
provement of heavier than-air machines.
Experiments were first made with a large
tetrahedral kite at DIR. Bells summer home
in Nova Scotia. The late Lieutenant Sell
fridge went up 10 this mah-lifting kite. and
1t was hoped to get data as to the lift
aud what is technically called drift or re-
~slstance. with a view to installing a motor
and propellers to convert the kite into q
free flying machine. The flight was en-
tireIy satisfactory, but, unfortunately, the
kite was wrecked by being pulled through
the water after it had come down.
What an AerOdrome is like.
The association then moved its head
quarters to the engine works of Mr.. G. H.
Curtias, who was executive head of the
C'NN@4A6 OAPOAAi4CACS W0IS COlF~
menced, but it was not until the arrival
of their fourth aerodrome, the Silver Dart.
that substantial successes were obtained.
The Silver Dart is a double-decked aero
drome, Aft. wide, with planes Sit. broad
lore and aft. Centred on it is o so h.p.
eight-cylinder motor, built by the G. H.
Curtiss Company, Hammondsport, New
York. This motor drives a ten-blade
wooden propeller, placed at the rear of the
airship. The elevation is controlled by a
horizontal rudder, broadly made and ex
tending out in front, by the fitting of
which the aviator can direct his course up
or down. At the rear is placed a perpen-
dicular rudder, by which the drome is
steered, and which operates like that in
an ordinary boat, The planes, with the
exception Of two small triangular wings at
the extreme tips, are of rigid construction,
the sections being c ,vered with vulcanised
silk. The forward thrust of the propeller,
when the drome is stationary and the engine
is going at full speed, is Boob
March ID witnessed q sensational flight
by the Silver Dart, when the machine out
dlstanced all her former records. Having
been fitted with ice-wheels, the mQchiue
was truudled out on the ice, where, after a
preliminary examination of the motor and
machinery, Mr.. J. A. D. McCurdy, owner
of the machine, climbed through the net
work of wires into his tiny seat in front
of the engine. The body of the machine
was held in check by half q dozen sturdy
onlookers while the engine was set in
motion. With q Let her go" from the
operator, the attendants released their
hold, and away went the machine over the
ice like an arrow sprung from a bow.
After skipping along the ice for about two
hundred yards, the drome rose at a grace
full angle to a height of about twenty feet
End shot away for the town of Baddeck,
some three miles distant. Passing over
the channel between the town and Kitson's
Island. the aviator headed the machine
for the ten-mile turning buoy. Rounding
the mark in q wide, sweeping circle, the
drome started on her return course. On
the way in she had to pass over a thickly
wooded patch of land, but was sufficiently
high to avoid coming in contact with the
tree tops. The finishing point was rather
close inshore, and Mr.. McCurdy, to avoid
the chance of landing on shore, shut off the
power, and the machine bereft ofmotion, Gid
ed gracefully to the ice. This was the re-
cord flight of the Silver Dart, the drome hay
inp covered q distance of twenty miles lasa