[35] Models embodying the above devices had been made and flown by the writer some years previously; but aside from these it is obvious that a Phillips’s aëroplane and other kinds can be effectively controlled in flight by the above-proposed three-torque system.
[36] This idea was later materialized in Langley’s gasoline biplane.
[37] The means for balancing here suggested in italics was claimed some years later in Mr. Hugo Mattullath’s patent application in which the inventor had the assistance of the present writer.
[38] A nearly equivalent vertical surface was used in Dr. Langley’s large “aërodrome.” It was a wind-vane rudder placed well below and to the rear of the centroid, to be used in turning corners. The pressure on this rudder would tilt the aëroplane toward the center of curvature of the path, and turn it about the vertical axis, but would conspire with the centrifugal force. If placed above and forward, it would give the desired moments, but oppose the centrifugal force.
[39] He died of apoplexy, January 31, 1902.
[40] The first flights were to be made from the water.
[41] It can be shown that the angle of flight requiring the least motive power is that which makes the wing resistance, or drift, three fourths of the entire resistance to progression.
[42] Atmospheric Resistance on Even Surfaces, by A. F. Zahm, Phil. Soc. Washington.
[43] The term “aërodrome” is now commonly applied to an aviation field.
[44] On August 25, 1909, Louis Paulhan, in the aviation contest at Rheims, flew 82 miles in 2 hours, 43 minutes and 24 seconds, preserving his lateral balance without the aid of torsion-wing mechanism and in a turbulent atmosphere.