Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-08-31
THE BACKGROUND OF PATIENT WORK.

The New York Post has an intensely interest
ing letter from one of its European correspondents
OH the recent gliding experiments at Madgeburg, in
which one of the flyers remained aloft more than
three hours. The main feature of the article is the
description of the experimental work which was
carried on for over six years by the German author
tiles, and which has resulted in the startling
achievement of a few days ago.
The correspondent, who must be accepted as
reliable, makes his statements on the authority of a
German aviator and scientist whose name, quite
naturally, he is not at liberty to divulge. The story
told gives a new idea of what is involved in the de-
velopment of the art of aviation, and illustrated the
application Of patient and intensified investigation
such as that which, rightly or wrongly, has long
been associated with German character.
This particular development, we are told. rep
resents laboratory work which has been in progress
ever since 1916, and which had been carried on for
years before a single flight was attempted or a sin
gle plane built for this purpose. Those who under
took this work began by making an intensive study
of the flight of birds, particularly the great soaring
birds such as the gull and the eagle. Moving pic
lures Of these flights were taken under all conceiv-
able conditions, and in reproducing these pictures
the movement was retarded so that a minute study
could be made of every motion. The work WIS
then subdivided. To one group was assigned the
study of the main. wing movements, to another that
of wing time, to another that of the heads of the
birds, and so on. Currents of air were thrown
against birds flying in enclosures, and their reac-
lions were noted. Every detail was studied min
utely, and when the resultant knowledge was as
sembled there was at least a fair understanding of
how a bird scars.
Among the discoveries is that the soaring birds
have developed on and around their heads a super
sensltiveness to currents of air, and this, in turn,
leads to instructive movements of the pinions which
utilize these currents as desired. Man has not de-
veloped this constituencies or this instinct, and in
some of the gliding experiments there was substi-
tuted the %aviator's actual observation of bits of
thistledown gummed to a card. Then it was neces-
sary that his own intelligence should take the place
of the birds instinct. This imposed a physical and
nervous strain from which the bird is free. More
recently, it is said, use has been made of a secret
preparation which, applied to the face, increases the
sensitiveness of the skin and enables the aviator to
feel rather to see, as it were, the changing air cur
rents. r
The impressive fact is that a human being is
able to soar like a bird, free of all trammels of mo-
tors and other power devices, riding at ease over
the changing air currents, not because somebody
has practiced jumping off housetops or from noun
tain pinnacles, but because hundreds of men have
worked for years, weighing and measuring, photo
graphing, drawing diagrams and working out math-
ematical formula, until it was possible to say with
practical certainty just how a given plane would
work under given conditions.
OF course the device which depends for its ele-
walton and progress on the responsiveness of mus
cles to orders from the brain after there has been
recognition Of the course and character of air cur
rents must be of limited application. Doubtless
work is in progress on the substitution of a mechan-
lcal device for the s%ensitized skin and an automatic
control connecting this with wing tips and rudders,
the whole to be under the control of the operator.
That would make soaring. comparable with driving
an automobile, relieving the tension on the operat-
or, and making flights of many hours possible.