(Courtesy W. J. Hammer.)
FARMAN BIPLANE, 1909.
HARMON IN FARMAN BIPLANE.
Leon Delagrange, the sculptor-inventor, who first had demonstrated the biplane, on March 30, 1907, aspired in 1908 to outfly Farman. He now practiced industriously on the military drill ground at Issy-les-Moulineaux, a large field which the Minister of War permitted the Aëro Club of France to use for such purpose. Here he and Farman, in friendly competition, flew day by day over gradually increasing courses. At times they were joined by other aviators, and thus the drill grounds at Issy became famous as an aviation school.
Farman’s new rival made startling progress during those frequent trials of March, 1908. “Just imagine,” he says, “that within a week I was able to complete my education as an aviator.” On March 17th he made an official flight of 269.6 meters, thus winning a prize of 200 francs offered by the Aëro Club of France for a beginner who should fly over 200 meters. Four days later he engaged in contest with Farman. Two poles were erected 500 meters apart to mark the points about which the men must race. The machines were brought forth from their sheds in the morning, gleaming dimly through a dense fog, and were given some preliminary trials. Then Farman made a flight of 2004.8 meters, going twice around the course in 3 minutes, 31 seconds. He thus trebled his grand prize flight of January. Presently Delagrange took wing and flew 1,500 meters in 2.5 minutes. Having been beaten by Farman, he invited his successful rival to take a seat behind him, and the two sailed away close to the ground, covering a distance of 50 meters. This was the first trip ever made by two men in one flying machine. For the first time also two machines had flown in competition over a considerable course.
Delagrange continued to pursue Farman for the championship. On April 11th, he flew 2,500 meters, and would have exceeded Farman’s official record of 2,004 meters, had he not touched the ground. The next day he summoned the official committee of the Aëro Club of France to witness and time his performance. Poles were erected at the corners of a triangle 350, 200, 275 feet apart respectively. Around this course he flew nearly five times, covering a distance of 5,575 meters in 9¼ minutes. Of this range the last 3,925 meters were covered without touching the ground. Thus at last he had out-flown Farman and established a new official record, the total distance actually covered being about ten kilometers, or approximately six miles. This ended, at least temporarily, the friendly competition at Issy; for now the aviators separated, Farman going to Belgium, Delagrange to Italy.
Delagrange’s fortune accompanied him abroad. On May 24th, he made some impressive demonstrations on the Place d’Armes at Rome in presence of the Minister of War and thirty thousand people. On May 27th, he flew before the King and Queen of Italy and many other court personages, remaining in the air nine and one half minutes, thus surpassing all previous European records for endurance and distance. But this was only preliminary. On the morning of May 30th, he came forth again on the Place d’Armes, a light breeze blowing. His machine rolled quickly over the ground, then circled gracefully ten times around in the air at a height of four to seven meters, covering an official distance of 12.75 kilometers, and remaining aloft 15 minutes, 26 seconds. On June 22d, at Milan, he flew before 15,000 people in the Place d’Armes, covering seventeen kilometers in 16 minutes, 30 seconds. Finally, on September 6th, at Issy-les-Moulineaux, he flew 29 minutes, 54 seconds, covering 14.8 miles, which proved his crowning effort for the year. As the two flights just mentioned surpassed all previous official ones in duration, it appears that Delagrange raised the world’s record four times within five months, increasing his own time from six and a half minutes in April to about thirty minutes in September, or nearly fivefold.
In the meantime, Farman was making rapid progress, gathering prizes and achieving wide renown. On May 30th, at Ghent, Belgium, taking with him M. Archdeacon, he flew 1,241 meters at a height of seven meters. He thus established a new record with two people, and won the 1,200 franc wager made with Santos-Dumont and Archdeacon against M. Charron, who contended that a flying machine would not, within the year, carry two men weighing sixty kilograms each. On June 6th he flew 20 minutes, 20 seconds, covering 19.7 kilometers, thus again increasing the world’s record, and winning the Armengaud prize of ten thousand francs for the first aviator to remain aloft fifteen minutes in France. On September 29th and October 2d, at Chalons, he successively increased the world’s record, and achieved his best results for the year. The first of these trials lasted 42 minutes, covering 24.5 miles; the second lasted 44.5 minutes, covering 25 miles. This last flight was forty times as long as the one of January, which gave him the grand prize of fifty thousand francs, and is a good index of the wonderful progress in aviation made in France during the year 1908. Between these two performances he, on September 30th, sailed from Chalons to Rheims, a distance of 27 kilometers, in twenty minutes. This flight was made over trees and houses, sometimes at an elevation of 200 feet, and was the first town-to-town flight ever accomplished. The following day he won the 500 franc prize for height, passing over balloons 82 feet from the ground. Such was the lively pace Farman set for the rest of the world.