“Thank you,” from Efficiency, “that was all most informing. And now will you tell me, please, how the greatest Speed may be secured?”
“Certainly, now it's my turn,” piped the Minimum Angle of Incidence. “By means of the Elevator, the Pilot places the Aeroplane at my small Angle, at which the Lift only just equals the Weight, and, also, at which we shall make greater speed with no more Drift than before. Then we get our greatest Speed, just maintaining horizontal flight.”
“Yes; though I'm out of the horizontal and thrusting downwards,” grumbled the Propeller, “and that's not efficient, though I suppose it's the best we can do until that Inventor fellow finds his Mechanics.”
“Thank you so much,” said Efficiency. “I think I have now at any rate an idea of the Elementary Principles of Flight, and I don't know that I care to delve much deeper, for sums always give me a headache; but isn't there something about Stability and Control? Don't you think I ought to have a glimmering of them too?”
“Well, I should smile,” said a spruce Spar, who had come all the way from America. “And that, as the Lecturer says, `will be the subject of our next lecture,' so be here again to-morrow, and you will be glad to hear that it will be distinctly more lively than the subject we have covered to-day.”
PART II. THE PRINCIPLES, HAVING SETTLED THEIR DIFFERENCES, FINISH THE
JOB
Another day had passed, and the Flight Folk had again gathered together and were awaiting the arrival of Efficiency who, as usual, was rather late in making an appearance.
The crowd was larger than ever, and among the newcomers some of the most important were the three Stabilities, named Directional, Longitudinal, and Lateral, with their assistants, the Rudder, Elevator, and Ailerons. There was Centrifugal Force, too, who would not sit still and created a most unfavourable impression, and Keel-Surface, the Dihedral Angle, and several other lesser fry.