Model aeroplanes / The building of model monoplanes, biplanes, etc., together with a chapter on building a model airship

The Building of Model Monoplanes, Biplanes, etc., together with a Chapter on Building a Model Airship
F. J. CAMM
WITH 190 ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
This is a practical handbook on the principles, constructional details and methods of building model aeroplanes, written by a well-known model aeroplane designer and builder. It deals with every part of a machine and describes a number of different types, including monoplanes, biplanes, collapsible machines, tractor monoplanes, hydro-monoplanes, aeroplanes driven by compressed air, etc., etc. The concluding chapter explains how to build a model airship, and, as in the case of all the others, is based on the results of practical experience. Readers in need of further information on the subject should address their inquiries to “Work,” La Belle Sauvage, London, E.C., through whose columns (but not by post), assistance will be gladly given.
B. E. J.
MODEL AEROPLANES
Why does an aeroplane fly? The question is worthy of close examination. There is one common enemy to aeroplanes—the force of gravity. Were it not for the existence of this force, which, as Newton put it, “is unseen and unheard and yet dominates the universe,” the problem of the aeroplane would have been solved years ago.
Fig. 1.—Bristol Monoplane and Biplane
Fig. 1A.—Forces Acting on Kite
If it takes a wind of fifteen miles an hour to lift a kite, similarly it would lift to exactly the same elevation if the holder of the kite-string commenced to run at a rate of fifteen miles per hour in calm air.
Now, an aeroplane is merely a kite with a mechanical arrangement (the engine and propeller) which supplies the motion necessary to fly it, and eliminates the necessity for a wind. This statement can easily be followed. In the aforementioned parallel it was seen that it was immaterial whether the kite-flyer was standing still with the wind moving at fifteen miles per hour, or whether he was moving at the rate of fifteen miles per hour in still air. The result in each case is the same—the kite flies.