Evening star., 1909-07-14
SM|DLEY HAS A|RSH|P
Wants War Department to
Buy His MonopIane.
WEIGHS BUT 225 POUNDS
Wide Wings Measure Thirty'Two
Feet From Tip to Tip.
HAS NEW IDEA IN PROPELLER
Placed So That Center Thrust Will
Be on Line With Surface
Of Plane.
HAS NEW IDEA IN PROPELLER

Within about three weeks washington
will have its first chance to look at the
monoplane.
It has had good demonstrations with
the biplane in the Wright machine. The
Williams heliocopter has flown, though
few people here have seen 1t. And now
comes the monoplane. which about COM
pletes the list of flying machine types
that are recognized as practical today.
The new inventor is not new to the
business, though he is new to Washing
ton. He is ]. Hilleth smidley of Bridge
port, Conn, and has been here for some
time working on his machine.
He has been in correspondence with the
War Department, but has not been able
to do any definite business with it.,
as It has had no money for aero
nautic work beyond that which will be
paid to the wrights and which is tied up
in the present contract with Herring.
Mr.. Smidley has his machine in a work.
shop on Capitol Hill. where 1t is rapidly
nearing completion. He has had the
motor shipped from Duryea works in
Reading, Pa, and expects to have it
ready to install in few days.
He is a machinist and instrument
maker. Though he has been interested
y says he does not think the aeroplane
or the heliocopter is the solution of the
problem. He has done a good deal Of
work with gliders and says he is building
the present machine for exhibition pur-
poses to get more money to prosecute his
experiments.
Man-Carrying Size.
The present machine Is man-carrying
size It is built Of bamboo framework,
with supporting planes. covered with light
canvas, painted with rubber solution to
render them impervious.
The width Of the main plane Is thirty
two feet. with breadth Of five feet. The
rear plane is seventeen feet across and is
of bow shape.
The whole machine. including the mo-
tor. weighs but 225 pounds. It runs on
four small wheels at the bottom of the
frame. The designer says 1t will rise in
a run of fifty feet on an average smooth
grass field.
There are several rather unusual fea-
lures about the machine. The main frame
contains a rectangular box of bamboo and
is so split that 1t will contain the pro-
peller practically in the center of the
machine
The propeller. which is not yet made,
is to be of built-up wood. 1t is eight
feet six inches in diameter. with an in
creasing pitch from the tip of the blades
.,
though some of the models with which
Mr.. Smidley has experimental have three
The propeller is SO placed that the CEN
ter of thrust will be on a line with the
surface of the monoplane. This, he says
will do away with the torque that would
otherwise come from having single pro-
peller so large. 1t will run at a maxi
mum speed of 600 revolutions.
The controlling planes consist of two
horizontal rudders placed In front, not
superposed. as In the Wright machine
but side by side. Raising one of them
will turn the machine to the left: raising
the other turns it to the right. Both
raised or lowered elevates or depresses
the whole machine.
The rudders are worked from a single
cided advantage, as things happen in the
air too quickly for an aviator to be both
cred with much mechanism.
Has Done Some Gliding.
Mr. Su,idIey saws he has built and used