Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-01-18
The HQSki1l Letter . 't : zs:sa
FLYING LIKE A BUZZARD.

New York Ciy, Jan. 12.-That man
will soon become flying animal, able
to soar in the air like an eagle with
out the aid Of motor, is the latest
dramatic forecast Of aeronautical ex-
perts. Successful short flights In mo-
torless planes have recently been made
by German ayiators, while both Euro
pean and American inventors are
known to be at work on models OF in
tricately shaped wings more nearly re-
sembling those of the large, soaring
birds.
This was the dream of men CEN
turtles before the age Of motors, and
most of the early experiments in fly
| ing were but clumsy attempts to lmi.
tate the wing motion Of birds. Leon
ardo da Vinci, for example, was con-
vinced that il 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
culiar shape Of their wings, so even
tually he produced huge and ac-
curately shaped pair. But something
seemed to be lacking. The young in
yentor 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 expected, and once
he came down very abruptly indeed
from the top of low hill:
In very short time he tired OF
these awkward experiments and turned
to the fashioning of 2 'helicopter"-aa
then he built another flying machine
that was a 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 flight of the eagle, instead OF
wasting so much time on his helicop-
ter, he might have discovered the
secret that modern scientists are be-
ginning to know.
Tho Example Of Birds
MAN is essentially land animal,
saws one aviator authority, land it is
cutie possible that if nature had not
nlaced before him numerous examples
Of birds and insects 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 earliest times telt m
spired to initiate them.
Mature has made flying machine
: in the bird, which is nearly Il thou
sand times as heavy as the air Its
bulk displaces. 49,, Y.
"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
, Some times, however, they stop and
hold themselves in a stationary posi-
ton directly over certain spot, care.
|. fully watching something in the eartf
; mmediately below. In such cases they
often work their wings with great rap
idity, evidently expendlng an enormous
/. amount of energy. When they ceas'
"a hover and commence to move agar
through the air, they appear 10 keel
: themselves at the same height with al
almost imperceptible expenditure o
+, power. 49, oa.a
] In the nineteenth century the secre
Of this eccentric mode of flight wa
discovered. 1t was, men realized, tn
!, wind. Professor Langley was. aware
s Of the soari., theory as far back a
1891. as is proved by his famou!
8 memoir. entitled The Internal Worl
! ~ the Wind" while in 1897 Mr.. Cha
mute shed even further light, on tn
{ mystery. He believed that the warn
atoms of the wind were the creates
difficulties to be encountered IN ny
: ing-a fact which is now fully appreci
: ated by aeronautical engineers.
According to the soaring theory
: there are three kinds of movement
S IN the air-a rising current of air
following the upward contour OF tn
ground; rising current of air, owe
y heated ground. hot air rising and coo
. air rushing down to take. its place
and, lastly, the irregularltles IN In
: speed of horizontal winds, causin
: crowding of air ontinuously-which
in turn, causes air puffs upward.
s A Successful Soaring Flight
e An illustration of this theory. i
= practice is the recent flight OF Her
Klemperer in Germany, which Is ex
planned in an article by Mr.. Augusta
l. Post