Weights
It has been found not difficult to keep down the weight of framework and supporting surfaces to about a pound per square foot. The most common ratio of surface to total weight is about one to two: so that the machinery and operator will require one square foot of surface for each pound of their weight. On this basis, the smallest possible man-carrying aeroplane would have a surface scarcely below 250 square feet. Most biplanes have twice this surface: a thousand square feet seems to be the limit without structural weakness. Some recent French machines, designed for high speeds, show a greatly increased ratio of weight to surface. The Hanriot, a monoplane with wings upwardly inclined toward the outer edge, carries over 800 pounds on less than 300 square feet. The Farman monoplane of only 180 square feet sustains over 600 pounds. The same aviator’s racing biplane is stated to support nearly 900 pounds on less than 400 square feet.
The Tellier Two-seat Six-cylinder Monoplane at the Paris Show
One of this type has been sold to the Russian Government
(From Aircraft)
Motor weights can be brought down to about two pounds per horse-power, but such extreme lightness is not always needed and may lead to unreliability of operation. The effect of an accumulation of ice, sleet, snow, rain, or dew might be serious in connection with flights in high altitudes or during bad weather. After one of his last year’s flights at Étampes Mr. Farman is said to have descended with an extra load of nearly 200 pounds on this account. With ample motor power, great flexibility in weight sustention is made possible by varying the inclination of the planes. In January of this year, Sommer at Douzy carried six passengers in a large biplane on a cross-country flight: and within the week afterward a monoplane operated by Le Martin flew for five minutes with the aeronaut and seven passengers, at Pau. The total weight lifted was about half a ton, and some of the passengers must have been rather light. The two-passenger Fort Myer biplane of the Wright brothers is understood to have carried about this total weight. These records have, however, been surpassed since they were noted. Bréguet, at Douai, in a deeply-arched biplane of new design, carried eleven passengers, the total load being 2602 pounds, and that of aeronaut and passengers alone 1390 pounds. The flight was a short one, at low altitude; but the same aviator last year made a long flight with five passengers, and carried a load of 1262 pounds at 62 miles per hour. And as if in reply to this feat, Sommer carried a live load of 1436 pounds (13 passengers) for nearly a mile, a day or two later, at Mouzon. One feels less certain than formerly, now, in the snap judgment that the heavier-than-air machine will never develop the capacity for heavy loads.
A Monoplane
(From Aircraft)