IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR AERIAL NAVIGATION
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edmund Edwards, of the Firm of Edwards and Co.,
Patent Agents and Engineers, of 40, Southampton Buildings, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR AERIAL NAVIGATION." A communication from abroad by
Julio Cezar Ribeiro de Souza, of 18, Rue de la Banque, Paris, in the Republic
of France
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Edmund Edwards at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th November 1881.
EDMUND EDWARDS, of the Firm of Edwards and Co., Patent Agents and
Engineers, of 40, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR AERIAL NAVIGATION." A com-
munication from abroad by Julio Cezar Ribeiro de Souza, of 18, Rue de la Banque,
Paris, in the Republic of France.
My Invention consists in applying to aërial navigation the principle upon which
the flight of birds with extended wings depends. Long observation has shewn that
by a bird so flying very little muscular force is used, but that it is sustained in the
air and flies almost without effort. To this end it utilizes its own weight to provide
resistance to the air, which meeting sufficient opposition under the wings and tail
of the bird enables the latter to support itself almost without muscular effort.
These principles are imitated in the toys called kites, in which however the tension
which is put upon the string when there is no wind takes the place of the weight
of the bird, and the kite thus supports itself by the resistance of the air. In the
case where a balloon is used for aërial navigation, according to this Invention, these
principles are reversed, that is to say, the balloon having no weight, but on the
contrary an ascensional force, it follows that wings when applied to the body of the
balloon should not be above, as in a bird, but below it.
The accompanying Drawing is in illustration of the present Invention, Figure 1
being a side view and Figure 2 a plan of a balloon and apparatus.
A is the body of the balloon, the length of which is about five times its greatest
diameter. Its front end is formed of a cone, the length of which is not less than
3

page_text: the greatest diameter of the balloon, which joins the base of the cone, and has
nearly the shape of a circular cone terminating in a shape ovoid at the back end.
The object of this arrangement of the shape of the balloon is to maintain the centre
of the ascensional force constantly in the front part of the balloon, so that the latter
may resemble in shape not only a bird which can fly, but also every moving body
which has its centre of gravity in its forward part. B represents the wings or
planes, the number of which may be varied. These wings are fixed round a longi-
tudinal axis, which can in its turn be raised or lowered round the extremity C by
means of the screw D or other convenient equivalent means. E is the rudder
arranged in a horizontal plane; this rudder can be raised or lowered round the
point F by operating the end G of the lever by any convenient means. The rudder
is so arranged that it is also capable of turning upon its longitudinal axis when
desired. His a helical screw or fan, which can be made to revolve by steam or
other convenient power, and I is the car attached to the balloon. The frame should
be constructed of metal as light but strong as possible, preferably hollow, but the
whole is provided with joints or articulations, as shewn at J, K, L, and wherever it
is necessary that rigidity should be avoided.
In order to render more clear the method in which apparatus operates constructed
according to this Invention, in the manner described and shewn, it is necessary to
examine more in detail the method of flight of birds floating on extended wings.
A body can have movement only by finding some point of resistance on or in the
medium in which it moves, and to find such point of resistance two inseparable
elements are required, that is to say, a force present in itself which presses on such
medium, and the force opposed to the former which acts upon the surface of the
body and provides a point-of-resistance. The one force is always proportioned to
the dimensions of the surface, whilst the other is proportioned to the resistance of
the medium. If the body is so placed on or in the medium it is said to support
itself.
These two forces which provide the point of resistance are always the most
important agents in speed, if the aid of instinct and of the muscular power necessary
to establish the equilibrium of the two forces and to combine them properly be
neglected, and such two forces, that is to say, weight and the resistance of the
air from below upward, are the sole agents in the flight of birds upon extended
wings.
This kind of flight is unquestionably the simplest and the easiest to imitate,
and upon it is founded the system upon which the present Invention is put in
operation.
A bird flying on extended wings utilizes the force opposed to ascent, that is to
say, weight, for which purpose its body takes a position entirely different to that
which it assumes when the bird is walking. In the latter case the head is raised,
whilst during flight it is lowered, and the feet at the same time are raised under
the tail, and its centre of gravity is thus moved toward the forward part of its
body. This movement carries it forward at once, more or less horizontally according
to the extent of the angles formed by the wings and tail. This result is entirely
mechanical, consisting of nothing more than the resultant of the two opposing
forces, weight and the resistance of the air against the wings and tail, each of which
forces is modified by the other, and producing a resultant inore or less horizontal
according to the direction of the parallelogram of forces constructed upon them.
In order to apply these simple principles of the flight of a bird to the novel
apparatus constituting the present Invention, it is only necessary to reverse the
downward action of the weight, replacing it by an ascensional force obtained by
means of a gas lighter than air or by a vacuum. The wings of the bird being
always proportioned both to its weight and to the resistance of the air, and the
weight at the same time preserving always a certain proportion to the volume, it
follows that the balloon can only attain to similar flight when similar proportions
are observed, that is to say, when its volume, its ascensional force, and the
dimensions of its surface of resistance present the same conditions but inversely,

page_text: and when these proportions are attained the balloon will move almost like the
bird.
The volume therefore must be proportioned to the ascensional force, the latter
to the dimensions or area of the supporting surfaces, and these surfaces to the
mobility of the medium. The wings and rudder must be arranged in relation to
the lightness of the balloon as the wings and tail are to the weight of the bird;
and the apparatus therefore will somewhat resemble a bird flying horizontally, but
on its back.
The bird's wings and tail are placed above its body in order that it may possess
a stable equilibrium which would not exist if the centre of gravity were above
the point of support. Similarly to obtain stable equilibrium in the balloon, the
centre of ascentional force, or the force acting from below upward, should be placed
in a contrary position, that is to say, above the point of support.
Under these conditions the movement of the balloon will resemble that of a bird
and will need neither to throw out ballast to ascend nor to discharge gas to
descend, but will ascend in the way the bird descends and vice versa. As however
the bird flying on extended wings requires occasionally to flap those wings,
especially to ascend, so the balloon will require a propellor, such as a helical fan on
a horizontal axis driven by any convenient motive power. The wings need nover
strike the air, their movements being confined first to a slight lateral inclination
either to rise more quickly or to assist in steering, as is hereinafter explained, and
secondly, to a longitudinal inclination at the back end, which is made moveable in
order to change the horizontal direction or to increase or reduce the speed.
In order to avoid too great horizontal extension when the balloon is large and
has great ascensional force, two or more wings as described are_arranged above-
each-other so that they may be of less size, as in the sails of a ship. The extent of
surface of these wings may be increased or lessened as desired by any convenient
means, as the variation of the wind may from time to time require, as the bird does
by extending or drawing in its wings.
And for the same purpose in large balloons the wings may be divided into
longitudinal section, and if necessary into lateral sections also, such sections being
reduced at their extremities. A bird's tail is arranged horizontally so that it may
act perpendicularly against the two vertical forces, weight and the upward resistance
of the air, but in the balloon the two corresponding forces, that is to say, lightness
and the downward resistance of the air, being also vertical, the rudder must also be
arranged horizontally. A bird does not however steer by its tail. Careful
observation shows that although of assistance in such steering, the principal object
of the tail is to ensure stability, and this is confirmed by the fact that birds having
but rudimentary tails cannot fly on extended wings as above described, but find it
necessary to flap their wings when flying.
The direction of flight laterally is governed by the simple alteration of the centre
of gravity to the side to which the bird desires to turn, in order to alter the
direction of its flight. Thus if it wishes to turn to the right it lowers its right
wing and slightly inclines its tail in the direction of the inclination of its two
wings. In this way the resultant of the two opposing forces is turned to the right,
the centre of gravity being altered on this side. If the bird wishes to turn to the
left, it lowers its left and raises its right wing, inclining its tail at the same time
in the direction of the inclination of the wings. If the change of direction of the
bird's flight be not produced by the alteration of its centre of gravity, then it must
be produced by the resistance offered by the wings to the forward movement.
There is no doubt, however, that a bird always makes the same movements to
change the direction of its flight, whether it flies in still air, or against or with the
wind, and though it can be easily understood that the resistance offered by the
wings to forward movement would effect a change in the direction of flight in still
air or against the wind, the movement of the wind or the resistance of the air to
the motion of the bird being opposed to the surface of its wings below and side-
ways, yet as it makes the same movements to change its direction when flying

page_text: with the wind, losing however much of its speed by such change from the wind's
direction; this fact, which is amply confirmed by observation, proves that it is not
the resistance of the surfaces to forward movement but the alteration laterally of
the centre of gravity which causes the change of direction of the bird's flight. In
fact, when flying with the wind, if it wishes to alter its direction and lowers the
wing on the side to which it wishes to turn, raising the other wing and inclining
its tail, its back is turned to the wind, to which it presents its largest surface.
It could never therefore deviate from the direction of the wind either to the
right or left, inasmuch as the pressure of the wind on the wings could only be the
same on both sides, and would compel it always to follow the same direction.
It seems certain therefore that a vertical rudder as heretofore used can do no
more than assist the wings and the horizontal rudder, if the lateral alteration of
the centre of the ascensional force of the balloon obtained by the wings and tail
is insufficient, on account of its size and volume, to effect the necessary change of
direction.
In order to produce the necessary alteration of the ascensional force to the right
or left for the purpose described it is only necessary to do exactly the reverse of
that which the bird does; that is to say, to raise the wing or wings if the balloon
is large on the side to which it is desired to turn, and to lower those on the other
side. By doing this the resistance of the air on the side upon which the wings
have been raised will be reduced, and as such resistance will be increased on the
other side upon which the wing has been lowered, the balloon will be naturally
turned toward the side of the raised wing.
This is only the opposite of that which the bird does when it diminishes the
resistance to its weight on the side where its wing is lowered and increases it on
the side where its wing is raised, its centre of gravity being at once transferred
toward the side on which the resistance is least.
I do not confine myself to the precise details of construction and proportion as
described and shewn in the accompanying Drawing, as they may be varied and
modified to suit varying circumstances.
It will be seen that the several novel devices and methods of operation described
and shewn are mutually dependent, and that their combination constitutes an
entirely new system of aerial navigation, and having described the Invention and
the manner in which it is to be performed, I claim,-
The method of constructing and arranging apparatus for aërial navigation by
means of balloons provided with wings, the supporting force, the resistance of the
air, and the position of the surfaces bearing the same relation to each other as in
a bird flying and supported in the air upon extended wings, but operating in the
opposite direction, the centre of ascensional force being always in the front part of
the apparatus, all substantially as and for the purposes herein before described and
shewn in the Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edmund Edwards, have hereunto set my
hand and seal this 7th day of November in the year of our Lord 1881