The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-01-13
Frederick Haskin's Letter
Flying Like a Buzzard.

man will soon become a flying ami
NAL, able 10 soar in the air like an
eagle without the aid Of a motor,
is the latest dramatic forecast of
aeronautical experts. Successful
short flights in motorless planes
have recently been made by Ger
man aviators, while both European
and American inventors are known
to be at work on models of intri-
cately-shaped wings more nearly
resembling those of the large, soar
ing birds.
This was the dream of men CEN
turtles before the age OF motors,
and most of the early experiments
in flying were but clumsy attempts
to initiate the motion of birds.
Leonardo da Vinci, for example,
was convinced that if he could only
produce a man-size pair of wings
exactly like the eagles, he would
be able to fly just as expertly as
! that bird. He had drawn many an
eagle and he knew the peculiar
shape of their wings, so eventually
he produced a huge and accurately
shaped pair. But something SEEM
ed to be lacking. The young in
ventor tried them out again and
again, using his arms and legs to
motivate them, yet he did not rise
grandly into the air, as he had ex-
pected, and once he came down
very abruptly indeed from the top
of a low hill.
In very short time he tired of
1 these awkward experiments, and
turned to the fashioning of a hell
copter"-a great aerial screw, 96
feet long, and then he built another
flying machine that was framed
sail. After that, he died. Now,
modern aeronautical experts tell us
that if Da Vinci had only gone on
studying the wings and the flights
of the eagle, instead of wasting so
much time on his helicopter, he
might have discovered the secret
that modern scientists are begin
ming to know.
The Example OF Birds.
Man is essentially a land ami
NAL" says one aviation authority,
land it is quite possible that if ma
ture had not placed before him nu-
merous examples of birds and in
sects that are able to fly he would
never have thought of attempting
it himself. But birds are very
much in evidence, and mankind has
from the earlist times felt inspired
to initiate them.
Mature has made a flying ma
chine in the bird, which is nearly a
thousand times as heavy as the air
its bulk displaces.
IF you will observe the flight of
hawks or eagles, you will see that
they seem to glide through the air
with hardly any movement Of their
wings. Sometimes, however, they
stop and hold themselves in a sta
tionary position directly over a GER
tain spot, carefully watching some
thing in the earth Immediately be-
low. In such cases they often
work their wings with great rapid
ity, evidently expending an enOr-
nous amount of energy. When
they cease to hover and commence
to move again through the air, they
appear to keep themselves at the
same height with an almost imper-
ceptible expenditure of power"
In the nineteenth century the Sc
cret of this eccentric mode of flight
was discovered. 1t was, men real
lied, the wind. Professor Langley
was aware Of the soaring theory as
far back as 1891, as is proved by
his famous memoir, entitled THE
Internal York of the Wind" while
in 1897 Mr. Chanute shed even fur
Their light on the mystery. He be-
lieved that the variations of the
wind were the greatest difficulties
to be encountered in fiying-a fact
which is now fully appreciated by
aeronautical engineers.
According to the soaring theory,
there are three kinds of movements
in the air-a rising current Of air.
following the upward contour of
the ground; a rising current of air
over heated ground, hot air rising
and cool air rushing down to take
it's place. and, lastly, the Irregular
tiles in the speed of horizontal
winds, causing crowding of air con-
uously-which, in turn, causes
air puffs upward.
Successful Soaring Flight.
An illustration of this theory in
practice is the recent flight OF Herr
KIemperer in Germany, which is
explained in an article by Augustus
Post.
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