Foot Levers. The foot lever for steering is cut from a piece of wood 22 inches long, hollowed out at the ends to form convenient rests for the feet. The wires connecting the lever to the rudder may either be attached to this lever direct, or, if a neater construction is desired, they may be attached to another lever under the floor of the cockpit. In the latter case, a short piece of 1-inch steel tubing serves as a vertical shaft to connect the two levers, which are fastened to the shaft by means of aluminum sockets such as may be obtained from any supply house. The lower lever is 12 inches long and 2 inches wide, cut from 1/16-inch steel similar to the warping lever.
Amateur builders often cross the rudder wires so that pressing the lever to the right will cause the machine to steer to the left. This may seem more natural at first glance, but it is not the Bleriot way. In the latter, the wires are not crossed, the idea being to facilitate the use of the vertical rudder for maintaining lateral equilibrium. With this arrangement, pressing the lever with the foot on the high side of the machine tends to bring it back to an even keel.
Tail and Elevator. The tail and elevator planes are built up with ribs and tie strips in much the same manner as the wings. However, it will hardly pay to have these ribs cut out on a jig saw unless the builder can have this work done very cheaply. It serves the purpose just as well to clamp together a number of strips of 3/16-inch spruce and plane them down by hand. The ribs when finished should be 24 1/4 inches long. The greatest depth of the curve is 1 1/4 inches, at a point one-third of the way back from the front edge, and the greatest depth of the ribs themselves 2 1/4 inches, at the same point. Sixteen ribs are required.
A steel tube 1 inch by 20 gauge, C, Fig. 33, runs through both tail and elevators, and is the means of moving the latter. Each rib at the point where the tube passes through, is provided with an aluminum socket. Those on the tail ribs act merely as bearings for the tube, but those on the elevator ribs are bolted fast, so that the elevators must turn with the tube. At its center the tube carries a lever G, of 1/16-inch steel 12 by 2 inches, fastened on by two aluminum sockets, one on each side. From the top of the lever a wire runs to the front side of the cloche, and from the bottom a second wire runs to the rear side of the cloche.
Fig. 33. Construction Details of Bleriot Tail, Elevators, and Rudder
AN OLD DUTCH WINDMILL AND A MODERN FRENCH AEROPLANE
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This Machine is the Work of One of the Cleverest Aeroplane Designers in Europe