The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1910-06-07
CURTSS CRAFT WAS SMALLEST EVER USED
Bne Measures Only Feet Aft From Side to Side--
Weight Only 1904 Poundsty HORSEPOWER WateCooIed Motor
Drives SevenF0ot Propeller 1000 Revolutions Minute

New York City.-The machine with
which Glenn H. Curtiss made his
fight from Albany to New York is not
only the smallest ever employed in an
important aerial trip, but aviators say
is the smallest which ever has been
utilized in cross-country journey.
It is what is known as the biplane
type. It measures from extreme front
to extreme rear just thirty feet one
inch, and it is thirty feet wide. The
two planes, which are four and one
half feet apart, are also four and one
half feet wide. They are made of the
fine rubber-silk cloth which is Cap
tain Thomas Baldwin's contribution
to aviation.
The planes and wings of the Cur
tiss machine are concave but rigid, in
which they differ from the Wright
machine in that its wings may be
warped through lever controls oper-
ated by the rider. Instead of warp
ing his wing tips Curtiss employs an
aileron on each side of the machine.
These ailerons are four feet long and
two and one-half feet wide, and are
fastened at each end of the machine
to two of the upright rods at the front
edges of the planes. The uses to
which these ailerons are put are iden-
teal with those accorded by the warp
ing wings of the Wright machine.
BY a system of wires and pulleys,
acting ON the rear edges of the allie
rons (and on the Wright machine on
the rear of the wings), the aileron on
one side is pulled up when the other
side is pulled down. This is neces-
sary to give stability and prevent
drift and overturning. If, in straight
away fight, for instance, the aero
plane drops toward the right, the de-
gree of the angle of incidence of that
side of the planes is increased, there
by adding to the resistance of the air
of that side, which tends to make that
end of the machine rise, and the an
gle of incidence of the upward end is
decreased, pulling it down and briug-
ing the aeroplane back to a normal
position.
The elevating plane or deflector at
the front of the machine which Cur
tiss used is larger than any he hith-
erto has employed. 1t measures about
two feet more in width than the one
he had on his Governors Island June
Bug type of biplane. The rear rud-
der is of the customary Curtiss man
ufacture, consisting of vertical and
a horizontal plane which intersect
each other at the centre lines.
At the very centre of the lower
plane and on strong wooden bed is
the eight-cylinder, V-type, fifty-horse
power motor, which drives the single
seven-foot propeller at a thousand
revolutions per minute. This exerts
a 350-pound pressure on the air, and
thereby propels the machine The
cylinders, which are cast singly, and
are water jacketed to an extent rath-
er less than is the custom with auto
mobile cylinders, are square, measur-
ing four by four inches. They are
cast of gray iron, with finely wrought
ristons.
The oil tank, holding two gallons,
is located under the aluminium crank
case. The lubricant is forced upward
through two ,one-sixteeuth inch pipes
tc the chrome-nickel steel cranksnaft
by means Of a small gear-driven