Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-31
HISTORY Of FLYING
TRACED IN EXHIBIT
Smithsonian Models and
Handbook Show Principle
Dates to 400 &c.

extends back before the Christian
era.
The history Of heavier than air
flying has been reconstructed in u
Smithsonian Institution exhibit
which contains a model of n flying
scheme worked out by Leonardo da
Vinci. Paul L. CARRIER. assistant
curator at the National Museum. has
just issued handbook Of aviation
development which traces the germ
of the idea much farther back.
1t seems natural that mans first
recorded machine for flying should
have been an imitation bird. Archytas
of Tarentum, who lived about 400
Il. e., is reputed to have made a
wooden bird about the size of Il
pigeon. which propelled itself some
so feet by the use of ethereal air"
Perhaps this medium was compressed
air; 10 one knows. In any event
Archytas' principle was probably a
good deal sounder than that of one
Of his medieval successors who is said
to have planned an elaborate aerial
chariot which was TO contain a mag
net in it's roof and a body Of iron in
it's floor. The attraction of the mag
net for the IRON was supposed to
raise this impossible carriage.
Da Vinci Pioneer.
Credit for the first design en-
bodying sound principles is given by
the handbook to Leonardo da Vinci.
artist. statesman, engineer and
philosopher. He made an exhaustive
study Of bird fight and designed a
wing Tapping machine which, how
ever. was never built A 5-foOt model
from pa Nincis design has been con-
structed.
With the mechanical developments
introduced in the nineteenth CEN
fury, flying made an enormous step
nearer the practical. AS early as
1910 Samuel Henson Of England
patented huge aircraft which was
to be $50 feet in spread and to be
powered by 20-horsepower steam
engine driving two 20-foot, 6-bladed
propellers. With the aid Of John
Stringfellow, Henson made models
of his device, but poor success and
lack of interest disheartened him and
he emigrated to Texas. His ideas,
however. contained many features
later adopted.
StringfelloW continued expert
menting. He was particularly eff
cent in the construction of small
steam engines and one of these he
Incorporated in small aircraft
similar 70 those which Henson had
built. The Smithsonian has built a
10foot span model of Stringfellow S
plane. carrying one of Stringfellow' $
own engines brought from England.
Lilienthal in Germany achieved the
next startling success in flying with
gliders. The museum collection has
one of Lilienthars gliders of some
200-foot span, which he used in
1866.
Octave ChanuteS biplane glider of
1896 proved so efficient that its de-
sign contributed to the later success
of the Wright brothers.
Contribution of Langley.
The man who gave to modern avi-
alton the sound scientific principles
by the application of which it has
achieved success. however was
Samuel Pierpont Langley, third sec
rotary of the Smithsonian institution
I'm 1887" says the handbook. "he
commenced series Of tests with
heavier than air machines to deter
mine the reaction of various surfaces
| when operated in the air. To assist
him in his calculations he constructed
a huge whirling arm, upon the outer
end of which he suspended his aero
foils and studied their action when
swung around in the wind. From
these tests he developed a type of
aircraft which he called an aero
drome. Many aerodromes We're
| made, each differing in some respect
from its predecessors. Most of his
early machines We're operated by
| rubber bands. but after evolving
successful type of wing and frame
he determined to construct a larger
aerodrome. to be powered with a
small steam engine. The result was
a machine with tandom single sur
faces, IA feet in span, weighing 26
pounds, and operated by a one-horse-
power steam engine. After several
of these had been tried with little
success. Aerodrome No. 5. now shown
in the museum, was finally evolved"
The history of the epoch making
flight of this machine under its own
power for q distance of three quar-
! terS of Il mile over the Potomac on
May 6, 1896 is now too we'll known
to need repetition. 1t proved beyond
dispute the feasibility of flight in
heavier than-air machines under
their own power.
With the outbreak of the war with
Spain in 1898 the possibility that an
| airplane would be of use to the Army
induced Prof. Langley to construct
man-carrying plane. The War De
partment allotted him $4,000 for this
purpose. The necessity of developing
Il light, high-powered gasoline engine
for the plane delayed the completion
| till 1908. In that year two attempts
were made to launch the aerodrome
| from the top of a houSeboat, but on
each occasion the launching mechan-
| ism failed to properly place the ma
chine in the air and it was precipi-
t1t od in n 1onhlip 6
skeptical and Langleys funds were
! exhausted, so further trials were not
made. He died a few years later, q
| broken man.
Langley Is Justified.
In 1914 Glenn II. Curtiss, at Ham
mondsport, n. Y. fitted hydroplane
| floats to Langley's plane so that it
| could be launched from the water in
stead of being catapulted from a
| houSeboat. When tested, the machine
rose into the air and flew. proving
| that Langley's ideas were sound and
! his construction correct.
But Langley's second failure was
| followed within nine days by the sue
cess of the Wright brothers. AT Kitty
Hawk. ~ c., they flew their twin
propellered biplane nearly a minute,
gaining for themselves the distinction
Of being the first in the history of the
world to transport man in q heavier
| than-air machine flown under it's own
| power.
| BY 1908 the Wrights had so far per-
| fected their plane that it flew. for
over an hour at Fort Myer. Va, car
ried a passenger and made round-trip
| journeys from city to city. The
| United States Army purchased this
plane, thus becoming the first Govern
ment to own and operate an aircraft
The plane was flown by the Signal
| Corps for several years. 1t now
makes a part of the Museum colec-
| ton.
| Thereafter, as all the world knows,
| the development of aviation was rapid