It will probably come as a surprise to the average reader to learn that at the end of 1910, there were more than a thousand amateur aviators in this country, though all the flights which form the subject of newspaper reports have been the work of not more than a dozen flyers and doubtless half the population has not as yet seen an aeroplane in flight. The desire to fly, whether it be to satisfy one's desire to soar above the world in seeming defiance of natural laws, or merely to obtain the financial reward that is won by successful flight, attracts a great many from all stations and walks of life. This is particularly true among older boys who look on aviation as an advanced form of kite-flying. An example of rather serious work along this line may be cited of two high school boys of Chicago, Harold Turner and Fred Croll, who built a monoplane weighing 125 pounds, Fig. 52. This machine, although too small for a motor, was equipped with rudder and other operating planes and levers, the elevating plane and ailerons being automatically operated by an electrical device. On one of its flights the machine, carrying a 120 pound operator, was started and propelled by attaching it to an automobile; it rose to a height of 15 feet, and remained in the air 43 seconds.
Contrary to all precedent, the average amateur is bent upon achieving what the skilled professional considers as beyond even his talent and resources—that of building his own flying machine. With every other mechanical vehicle, the amateur learns to drive first and the majority are content with that achievement—for example, very few chauffeurs have any great ambition to build their own automobiles. With flying machines (one of the most difficult of mechanical contrivances), nearly all amateurs want to construct new types for themselves and all confidently expect to fly with no more knowledge than that gained in constructing them. We all have to be apprentices before becoming masters, so all aviators necessarily have to be learners and "grass cutters" before being professionals. Charles K. Hamilton was an exception, but he was already an expert pilot of dirigible balloons, and he did not try to build his own aeroplane. Willard, Mars, and Ely, all Curtiss pupils, flew after a very short training, but they did not attempt to construct aeroplanes for themselves. This is also true of Clifford B. Harmon, the champion amateur.
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Classes of Amateurs. Inventors. Generally speaking, amateurs are of two classes. Those of the first class believe they have conceived some entirely new system or invention, or an improvement on some machine that has previously proved a failure; they think they have discovered the secret which other inventors who preceded them failed to grasp. They expend their meager capital in trying to realize high hopes. A comparatively small number ever get as far as completing the machine and one trial on the field is usually sufficient to put a quietus on those who do, as it is disappointing, to say the least, to see the result of a number of months' work undone in a twinkling without the machine having shown the least disposition or ability to get off terra firma.
Would Be Performers. The second class finds its chief incentive in the munificent reward to be gained with what appears to be comparatively little effort or expenditure, and the amateur who is seeking financial returns has no alternative except to build his own machine, or enter either the Wright or Curtiss school of flying and secure a berth with one of these companies.
Wright and Curtiss Patents. This is the result of conditions at present obtaining in the field of aviation. The only generally successful types of American aeroplanes are the Wright and Curtiss, and the acquirement of a biplane of either type means the expenditure of at least $5,000 for the machine alone, and they are sold only to individuals on the express condition that the machines are not to be used for exhibition or as a means of profit to the owner. The manufacturers have expert flyers of their own who attend meets and fairs throughout the country. It would make their monopoly impossible to allow outsiders to fly their aeroplanes publicly or to exhibit them. By this restriction the price of the machines is kept up and large returns are gained by exhibitions and flying.
To break this monopoly by importing European machines is not possible. All the successful aeroplanes made abroad such as the Farman, Cody, and Sommer biplanes; and the Bleriot, Antoinette, and Grade monoplanes are fitted with devices of control or stability, or both, covered by the Wright patents and can not be flown in this country without legal trouble. The numerous foreign aviators who brought over their machines in the fall of 1910 to compete at the International Meet, did so only on being granted a concession by the Wright Company to the effect that they would not be considered as infringers and sued. Similar arrangements were made at subsequent meets and this handicap will always be present where foreign machines are used.
Evasion by Invention of New Types. But when he thinks of the unprecedented sums paid professionals for simply exhibiting their machines and making short flights, the amateur is anxious to obtain a share of the profits. No thought is given the fact that were he and all his kind permitted to fly, the achievement would soon be commonplace and the aviator's golden age would be over. There are accordingly hundreds of would-be aviators in this country today who are striving to evade the Wright basic patents by either devising entirely new types of aeroplanes, or by inventing new methods of control and stability that will not infringe. Others, reasoning that the old aeroplanes built before the advent of the Wright machine cannot be held as infringements owing to priority, propose to develop Maxim, Langley, and Ader machines, though the dictum in the New York Court of Appeals decision referred to under the head of "Legal Status of Wright Patent," which states that a prior machine which had never been known to fly would not be considered an anticipation of a modern successful machine, may prove a stumbling block in their case as well. Thus, a round of the workshops of these enthusiasts reveals a host of heavier-than-air machines of every conceivable type and shape, every one of which, according to its builder, is an aeroplane that will fly. Mineola and Garden City, Long Island, harbor a score of these little shops the year round, but the same scenes are being enacted on a smaller scale in almost every state in the Union, and particularly in California, Ohio, Kansas, Massachusetts, and Arizona, in addition to which there are many who are carrying their experiments on in secret. Each believes deep in his heart that he will succeed where a master failed.
"Maxim failed with this type of machine," quotes one. "How did he expect to fly when his control was not proportionate to the machine's lift capacity?" Seemingly, nobody ever thought of that and our friend will make a fortune by going Maxim one better, but he does not. After months of labor and a great deal of expense he finds that some unforeseen difficulty develops which keeps his machine to earth as if it were part and parcel of it. Another has conceived a type of monoplane that is entirely new—different from any existing type—and as the latter are all foreign, he prides himself on having developed a monoplane that will be entirely American—the first and only American monoplane. Theoretically, it is a wonder; mechanically it is correct; and it speeds over the turf with surprising velocity; but when the elevating rudder is operated to make the machine rise, it balks and plunges head first into the ground. Again and again, the propeller and other broken parts are replaced at no small expense; again and again the inventor goes over every part of the machinery and computes the dimensions of the supporting surface to see if it all corresponds with the formula of his special theory. But time after time, the aeroplane acts like a jumping frog and lands head first. At last, its builder becomes convinced that there is something radically wrong and begins to depart from his original plans, involving changes that simply mean a waste of effort and money, since the inventor does not himself know what he is trying to correct and no one else knows better than he what the trouble is.
Evasion by Acquiring European Types. Others still, realizing from the foregoing experiences that it is almost impossible to construct an entirely new type of aeroplane off-hand, acquire European types and propose to fit them with new control and stability devices, such as are not covered by the Wright patents. So far, none has succeeded. Somehow, the Wrights seem to have covered all the conceivable working devices for control and stability, and the numerous attempts have accordingly resulted in failure. Undoubtedly, some of these aeroplanes built by amateurs may really be capable of flight; but how is the inventor to know it when he lacks the ability to operate it? To know how to fly an aeroplane is a condition precedent to success in the field of aviation that can not be met by building of a machine. The beginner is thus badly handicapped. Even though his machine may embody the elements essential to successful flight, he may never be able to establish the fact, since his first blundering attempt or two frequently ends by wrecking the machine, and many have neither the means nor the stamina to persevere further after a few bad wrecks, involving weeks and weeks of rebuilding each time. He can not engage an expert to fly his machine for him, as the expert's time per minute figures out a price that makes him gasp, and even at that the expert professional's time is pretty much all taken. Furthermore, very few would run the risk of attempting to fly an untried aeroplane—they have more to lose through accidental injury than the builder has through the failure of his theories.
And so it is with most inventors. They may have conceived something really good, but it is not complete, and an aeroplane is hardly worth its weight as junk unless it is. Hundreds of patents are taken out every year on devices to be used on heavier-than-air machines; inventors by scores make daily rounds trying to interest financiers in some seemingly wonderful mechanical scheme, and dozens of companies are organized each year to exploit some especially promising inventions. Numbers of aeroplanes are constructed and hailed as marvels, but, somehow, when a successful flight is made by an amateur it is always with some standard aeroplane, either of the Curtiss or Farman types, and mostly the former. In fact, the Curtiss has become a favorite with the amateur since the Federal court refused to sustain the granting of a preliminary injunction in favor of the Wright Company against Glenn H. Curtiss. It is accordingly being taken for granted in general that the outcome of the Wright vs. Curtiss litigation will be to declare the Curtiss machine non-infringing. Should it be the other way about, there will certainly be gloom and despair in the amateur camps throughout the country. However, neither the Wrights nor Curtiss impose any restriction upon the building of machines of their types for experimental purposes, so that the amateur who wishes to copy them may safely do so, provided no attempt be made to employ the machine for purposes of public exhibition or financial gain.
EXAMINATION PAPER
BUILDING AND FLYING AN
AEROPLANE
PART II
Read Carefully: Place your name and full address at the head of the paper. Any cheap, light paper like the sample previously sent you may be used. Do not crowd your work, but arrange it neatly and legibly. Do not copy the answers from the Instruction Paper; use your own words so that we may be sure that you understand the subject.
Contrast the Bleriot with the Curtiss in every essential particular.
Give details of the Bleriot running gear.
How is the supporting plane of the Bleriot built and reinforced?
What sort of fabric is used to cover the plane and how is it fastened on?
Describe by sketch the Bleriot control system.
How does the location of the motor in the Bleriot compare with its location in the Curtiss?
What is “grass-cutting” and why is it practiced?
Describe some of the devices used in aviation schools.
How is the elevating plane manipulated to start the aeroplane from the ground?
How is the static balance of a machine determined?
How does warping the wings affect the behavior of an aeroplane? How should this be practiced?
Give the process of making a turn in an aeroplane.
What is “banking”? What must be done to prevent excessive banking on a turn?
How can a turn be made in a wind?
Why should the start and the landing always be made in the teeth of the wind?
What is the attitude of the masters of aviation toward fancy flying?
Classify the most common sources of accidents.
What must an aviator do in case his motor stops in midair? Is this considered a dangerous situation?
What are the relative merits of biplane and monoplane as regards the avoidance of accidents?
What are some of the devices used to protect the aviator in case his machine collapses?
Analyze rather carefully the additional stresses put upon an aeroplane when an aviator suddenly swoops and then rights his machine by a quick movement of the control.
After completing the work, add and sign the following statement:
I hereby certify that the above work is entirely my own.
(Signed)
*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUILDING AND FLYING AN AEROPLANE ***