Not in the least discouraged, Maxim at once designed a new machine. This measured fifty feet in width and forty feet in length in the middle, but with the corners cut off, so that it was sharpened both fore and aft. The wings were made long and narrow, extending out twenty-seven feet beyond the main plane, and large fore and aft rudders were attached. It was not even expected that the machine would fly. All that was hoped for was that it would lift somewhat so that its upward tendency might be accurately measured.
The most successful “flight” of this model will seem a very tame affair indeed to the boys of to-day who are daily reading of the marvellous voyages in air across sea and land. The “airship” was run over its track and the steam pressure run up to 329 pounds per square inch. The speed increased and the upward thrust began to be felt. Finally the front wheels of the machine actually lifted from the track. The rear axle rose three or four feet above its normal position. When it alighted, the delighted aëronauts found that the wheels of the machine had passed over the turf for a very short distance, without making any marks, showing that for a second or so the machine was actually off the earth. It seems curious to us to-day that this “flight” should have been considered remarkable.
PLATE XVI.
The Propeller and Shaft of the Model Shown, Plate XV.
The experiments carried out by S. P. Langley, beginning in 1887 and lasting for four years, placed a great deal of valuable, scientific data in the hands of the aviators. Thousands of tests were made with an apparatus similar to that used by Maxim. In one class of these experiments solid metal planes were attached to the end of the revolving arm in such a way that they were free to fall for a fixed distance. When in rapid, horizontal motion, the metal seemed to part with its weight, and the material, though one thousand times heavier than the air, was found to be actually supported by it. It was proven, for instance, that one horse power would support over 200 pounds weight of planes driven at a speed of fifty miles an hour.
All this preliminary work, or nearly all, we now see, was necessary before a practical aëroplane could be constructed. The early aviators, although they did not fly, at least showed what not to do, and several paid the price of their lives for this knowledge. Lilenthal had mapped out the aëroplane in the rough, and determined the general shape it must take. The experiments of Maxim and Langley enabled the successful aviators to calculate the size of the machine necessary to carry them and the amount of power required to drive it.
CHAPTER III
THE WRIGHT BROTHERS’ OWN STORY
THE Wright Brothers brought to their work a genius for invention and, making free use of the results of former investigation and experiment, finally succeeded in building a heavier than air machine which would actually fly. The story of their experiments and final success, which one may read in their own words, forms one of the most fascinating chapters in the history of invention.