Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-02

the airport and into the darkened
SKIES winks its navigation lights in
cheerful farewell and is gone. High
In the skies the pilot checks his course by
well lighted instrument board and follows
pathway of blinking beacons, lighthouses of the
land to guide the night riders along the air.
ways. He nears his next port, flashes on his
landing lights and glides safely down into the
wide rays of field fioodlights.
There would be none of the wide network of
lighted airways nor any safety on them for the
flying men were it not for the work done SO
years ago by a great scientist, who spun thin
thread of wire in a vacuum tube and made
it glow incandescent in electric fire. And yet
Thomas A. Edison has never flown in the
vehicle which his many inventions have helped
to perfection and general use, though hundreds
of thousands of his fellow citizens have done
so and enjoyed the experience. Not long ago
he stood by Booming amphibian at Newark
Airport and was invited to enter it and inspect
it more closely. But he was wary even of
innocent a suggestion. possibly suspecting plot
to give him some sky experience mot yet" he
Said mot yet"
Now there seems to be some likelihood that
Mr.. Edison's first air trip viii not be by air
plane but in something apparently quite unlike
it. For he has made no secret of his enthusi-
astic interest in the autogiro, the queer craft
which has been called the flying windmill"
and which looks at first sight something like
q giant dragondy. It was put through its
PAGES at Newark for the venerable inventor; it
climbed steeply into the sky and came down
vertically to an easy landing it new at 20 miles
an hour and at 100. Mr.. Edison's approval was
expressed promptly and to the point. That's
the answer, that's the answer" he exclaimed,
and went on to describe the autogiro as "the
greatest advance that could have been made in
aviation"
This opinion is impressive, as it comes from
t,ae oil ffa an
of science. It was, indeed, critical opinion,
for Mr.. Edison made one circuit of the machine
and put his finger at once on its most important
feature. He touched the long vanes of the rotor
which takes the place of wings for the autogiro
and found them flexible, moving on a universal
joint with free play up and down. "Oh, that's
the trick" he said. That's the only way to
avoid gyroscopic action"
The autogiro already has long history, but
1t never amounted to much until its inventor,
Juan de la Cierva, came by theory and expert
ment to similar conclusion-that 1t would not
ny with a fixed rotor. He had built nearly
dozen autogiros before he discovered this secret.
All of them had toppled over before they left
the ground sometimes in one direction and
sometimes in the other, sometimes on their
noses. Their Gift" had been one-sided and
nothing would compensate for this dangerous
tendency. The inventor now admits that this
was just as well. Had the thing left the ground
IN us SaIucI 10TH IL WOulO UaTOly nave BOt
safely back again But when the blades of the
rotor were made free to adjust themselves both
vertically and horizontally to the flow of air
the autogiro few clumsily at first, but with in
creasing steadiness and assurance through the
long series of models which have led to the
approximate perfection of the present craft.
THIS freedom of movement and articulation"
= of the vanes is only one Of the surprises in
VOWED in study of the autogiro. The layman's
first impression is that the rotor is big propel-
ler which pulls the ship into the sky and breaks
its downward descent. 1t is nothing of the sort.
It is simply revolving wing in four blade Sec
tions, swinging freely on ball bearings and
turned by air pressure either from forward or
downward flight. The latest models have O.
self-starter to put the rotor in motion, but this
is automatically disengaged when flying speed
Is attained When that point is reached the
autogiro flies like plane and handles like a
plane but with important gains in safety 1t
is pulled along by an ordinary propeller in the
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