“Don’t fly your aeroplane till it’s built,” teased the captain.
The lever to operate the planes and bird-tail rudder was at the right of the operator’s seat. It was to be attached to the forward beam by means of a rocking-hinge—also devised by Captain Anderson, and later made by Andy—that permitted a straight motion forward and back and a movement to right and left at right angles to the other motion.
About six inches above the beam, a wire was made fast to the lever. This wire extended to the right and left, and passed beneath grooved wheels attached to the base of the first and second stanchions to the right and left. From the second wheel on each side the wire passed up and diagonally to the rear and far corner of the upper plane, where it was made fast. Throwing the lever to the right drew down the rear of the extended upper plane on the left, while the contrary motion reversed the operation.
A frame of spruce and pine, extending ten feet in the rear, passing between the orbits of the propellers and braced with wires extending to the ends of the car beams, was planned to carry the proposed tail-guide. The shaft to operate this was a reinforced length of spruce.
This rudder shaft extended to the universal control lever. From this end of the shaft, a quarter-inch round steel pin extended through the lever and was secured by a nut so that the shaft might revolve and yet be pushed backward and forward by a front and rear movement of the control rudder.
The mechanism to revolve the shaft to the right or left at the same time was what taxed Captain Anderson. In an attempt to secure this result, he added a small hand lever to the top of the principal control lever. This adjunct was so hinged that it might be moved only to the right and left, and had no play forward or backward. At the base of this little lateral lever a cross-arm was attached, about six inches long. The movement of the little lever gave this cross-arm a rocking motion up and down.
From each end of the rocking lever a hinged arm extended downward and engaged—through guides—a cogged wheel, also fastened on the control shaft.
“I’ll bet that’s exactly the way my uncle meant it to work,” commented Andy enthusiastically. “If you throw the control lever to the right, the left rear plane is depressed. The same motion turns the wheel on the lever shaft. This, working in the cog on the rudder shaft, gives it a reverse motion—and that throws the fins of the tail on a diagonal slant to the right.”