Plate IV.
The propeller is placed at the rear of the machine, the smaller plane being considered the elevator. The bearing is shown in detail in the accompanying illustration. It is made by folding and bending a piece of sheet brass into the shape shown. A piece of steel piano wire is passed through the forward end of the motor base to act as an anchor hook for the rubber band.
The propeller is easily wound up by hand.
One side of the main plane will have to be made slightly larger than the other in some cases in order to counteract the twisting action of the propeller by one side of the machine more of a lift than the other.
The planes are adjusted by bending the wire edge. They should form a slight dihedral angle. The rubber strands lie along the top of the motor base so as to bring the centre of the propeller thrust coincident with the centre of pressure on the planes. Bending the front edge of the planes down will cause the machine to take a downward path while bending them up will cause the aeroplane to fly higher. A little experimental work will determine the proper position.
The Monoplane Flyer. (Plate III.)
The fusellage or "backbone" of the machine is formed out of a piece of thin walled aluminum tubing having an outside diameter of one-quarter of an inch and measuring twenty-four inches long.
The framework of the planes is formed out of rattan reed, one-eighth of an inch in diameter. The main plane is 19 inches across from tip to tip. It is 4 inches deep at the centre and 5 1/2 inches at the widest point near the tips. The framework is spread near the centre of each wing by a piece of rattan reed 5 1/4 inches long. The ends of the reed are joined by rolling a small piece of copper sheet into a tube and closing it around the reed tightly with a pair of pliers.
The reed forming the frame of the plane passes through a hole in the aluminum tube.