The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1910-12-29

have carried off over six hundred thou
sand dollars in prize money during the
past year. aside from the fabulous sums
that have poured in from exhibition
flights. Morane. the French aviator.
has won seventy thousand dollars. Paul
han, who was a mechanic at fifteen dol
lars week two years ago, has retired
from the air with a fortune of two
hundred thousand dollars which he is
investing in the development of a plant
for the manufacture of aeroplanes. He
won fifty thousand dollars for his flight
from London to Manchester.
The Wright Brothers. il is reported
sold the French rights to use their ma
chimes for one hundred Thousand dol
lars and received two hundred thousand
for the German patents. Individual
prizes awarded other aviators for rec
ord flights range from fifteen thousand
dollars down.
Gaining Stability.
Through the efforts of the Wright
Brothers. in the construction of biplanes
TO attain record attitudes. for which
fabulous sums are awarded at aviation
meets. and the ingenuity of Glenn Cur
tiss in developing aeroplanes to get
away with the trophies for speed in
the air, the flying machines are rapidly
gaining in stability, so that where now
the power of balance rests with the
aviator, in little while the machine
will acquire the automatic balance, and
it is predicted that within a year the
problem of aerial navigation will be
solved as a mode of travel as practical
as automobiles on the land and ocean
grevhounds to traverse the seas
The struggle to reach record attitudes
which is being made by the Wright
Brothers and Glenn Curtiss' efforts to
attain record speed are developing a
combination which. when worked out.
will solve the problem of automatic
balance and control and make aviation
safe sport for all. The Wright Broth
ers are striving for the greatest pos
sibie lifting power. The Wright biplane
is navigated by two large propellers,
worked by chain gear which gives them
tremendous power.
The matter of resistance to the at
mosphere in flying is of secondary con
sideration, and a machine viii rise with
comparatively slight momentum against
the wind, sometimes being carried
backward while ascending in strong
breeze. Buoyancy is the chief object
in view to soar to record heights.
Danger of Freezing.
There are other obstacles, however.
to overcome in record altitude flights
The higher up the lower the tempera-
ture, and not only does the aviator
have to bundle himself up to keep from
freezing to death, but the engine of
the aeroplane has to be specially con-
structed so that the oils, gasoline and
water in the radiator will not solidify
and stop the mechanism.
This is what happened the Mars
machine at Fresno, when he was only
up about a mile. He struck a cold
air current which froze up his machine
and he dropped about four thousand
feet. He succeeded in getting enough
resistance by suddenly pointing his ma
chine up when within three hundred
feet from the ground and by his pres
ence of mind landed gently averting
a fatal plunge to earth from nearly
a mile IN the air.
Special carbureters are used in the
high altitude machines. The oils and
gas are fed by sprays instead of being
mixed, as in the ordinary carbureters.
In every instance when an aviator has
penetrated the zero regions of the
ETHEREAL realm he has been almost
shrlyeled with the cold. Paulhan, in
his flight from London to Manchester
had to descend twice to thaw himself
out, and when he finally landed he was
so benumbed with the cold he had to
be lifted from his machine.
After Speed Record.
Curtiss. on the other hand. is after
the speed records and to get the mo
mentum he is striving to reduce the
resistance to the atmosphere to the
minimum. To do this he must cut down
his wing area and depend on swiftness
of flight to hold aIoft. He can not
make speed in the light air of the
higher attitudes and his machine hash t
the buoyancy to hold the elevation he