Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-10
AVIATION
BY JOSEPH S. EDGERToN.

IAN has done a pretty gooC
M Job of conquering the air
WI so far as he has gone anc
a = in the comparatively Short
space of time since the virgins
took their first flights along the
wind-Swept sand dunes at Kitty
Hawk, N. c.
The airplane of today is q fal
cry from the machine in which
Wilbur and Orville Wright f1rSt
took flight. That machine is
looked upon today as the crudeSt
sort of flying apparatus, and Few
there are of the present, day myers
who would risk their necks in Such
a contraption, or in some OF It's
successors, for that matter.
But man, admittedly, has long
way to go, and lot to learn about
this flying business.
And it is significant to note that,
apart from the power plant re-
search in connection with the
present-day advancement in ava
fion. man learns most from his
feathered friends who have been
flving since the dawn OF time
when he studies fight.
Divergent Paths.
Flight, as the birds have de-
veIoped it. and fight, as 1t has
been developed by man, nave
taken widely divergent paths 10
the same end. That those patnS
will some day converge again, put
at that time in the air, not on the
ground, few now connected with
aviation doubt.
Hans Hocke, a CZechoSlovaklan
inventor who has spent most OF
his time in Germany since the
war studying the flight of birds,
arrived in the Capital last week
with a plane to which just an
other principle of bird-like flight
had been applied, and ms plane
was an object of interest," 10 Z
great many who are studying ano
furthering the advancement OF
aviation in this country. -
Hocke has spent the past 10
wear studying the fight of soar
Inc birds for application OF bird
like flight to aviation, ana ms
study has not been without def
mite results.
THE plane in which Hocke and
his nilot, Ralph Haynes OF New
York. few here from New York,
had its ailerons, the movaole
balance planes on either wing
heretofore indispensable to the
dver--Securely locked and immov-
able For the balance these al
ierons provide in maneuver1ng
the ship. Hocke provided curious
" untitled wing tips, which OBJ
viated the use Of ailerons on the
ficht down, The evolution OF
those wing tips is an interesting
story of the study OF birdlike
flight. ,..
Hocke. as have been many 9TH
ers who sought to study bros In
actual flight, was hampered py
much too much mobility on the
mart of the birds he sought 10
study. He was in one element
and the birds in another, both In
their natural element, but the
trouble was that the birds were
in the air, sometimes very nlgn
up. and he was on the ground.
TO keep the birds in their natu-
raj element and still have an OPP
portunity to thoroughly STUDY
their actions while going through
the air, Hocke rugged up an IN
genious device.
Capturing soaring birds, guns,
hawks. vultures, doves and the
like. he made small harnesses,
which would not hamper their
wing action and attached them
by strings to a miniature circular
swing. the like of which is seen IN
almost any amusement park-ln
these days generally with a plane
like car and a whining propeller.
Round and round he sent the
swing, the birds at first Tapping
n1adiy to escape their harness
and get off into the wide, free air:
But after a while the birds ceased
their efforts to escape and, setting
their wings for soaring, glided
around and around the swing.
His birds trained to the work, 1t
was an easy matter for Hocke 10
study the conformation OF the
birds wings with the aid OF a
slow-notion camera.
Hocke found that the olrds