Aeroplanes

by James Slough Zerbe

Overview

THE "SCIENCE" OF AVIATION.-It may be doubted whether there is such a thing as a "science of aviation." Since Langley, on May 6, 1896, flew a motor-propelled tandem monoplane for a minute and an half, without a pilot, and the Wright Brothers in 1903 succeeded in flying a bi-plane with a pilot aboard, the universal opinion has been, that flying machines, to be successful, must follow the structural form of birds, and that shape has everything to do with flying.
We may be able to learn something by carefully examining the different views presented by those interested in the art, and then see how they conform to the facts as brought out by the actual experiments.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781444690743
Publisher:	Dabney Press
Publication date:	12/09/2009
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.57(d)

About the Author

"It is not the aim of the book to teach the art of flying, but rather to show how and why the present machines fly. The making and the using are separate and independent functions, and of the two the more important is the knowledge how to make a correct machine.
Hundreds of workmen may contribute to the building of a locomotive, but one man, not a builder, knows better how to handle it. To manipulate a flying machine is more difficult to navigate than such a ponderous machine, because it requires peculiar talents, and the building is still more important and complicated, and requires the exercise of a kind of skill not necessary in the locomotive.
The art is still very young; so much is done which arises from speculation and theories; too much dependence is placed on the aviator; the desire in the present condition of the art is to exploit the man and not the machine; dare-devil exhibitions seem to be more important than perfecting the mechanism; and such useless attempts as flying upside down, looping the loop, and characteristic displays of that kind, are of no value to the art.

THE AUTHOR."