September 4, 1910—Morane, at Havre, rises to height of 8,469 feet.
September 7, 1910—Weyman, with Farman biplane, flies from Buc in attempt to reach the top of the Puy-de-Dôme, lands at Volvic, 5 miles from his destination. Establishes world’s record for flight with passenger, having covered 139 miles without landing.
September 28, 1910—Chavez crosses the Alps on a Bleriot monoplane from Brigue, in Switzerland, to Domodossola, in Italy, flying over the Simplon Pass.
October 1, 1910—Henri Wynmalen, of Holland, with a biplane at Mourmelon, France, rises to a height of 9,121 feet, making a new world’s record for altitude.
October 4, 1910—Maurice Tabuteau recrossed the Pyrenees, in his return trip from San Sebastian to Biarritz, without accident or marked incident.
October 5, 1910—Leon Morane, the winner of nearly all the contests in the English meets for 1910, fell with his monoplane at Boissy St. Leger, during a contest for the Michelin cup, and was seriously injured.
October 8, 1910—Archibald Hoxsey, with a biplane, makes the longest continuous aeroplane flight recorded in America, between Springfield, Ill., and St. Louis, Mo.—104 miles.
October 12, 1910—Alfred Leblanc, with monoplane, at St. Louis, flies 13 miles in 10 minutes, a speed of 78 miles per hour. It was not officially recorded, as a part of the distance was outside of the prescribed course.
October 14, 1910—Grahame-White flies from the Bennings Race Track 6 miles across the Potomac River to the Capitol at Washington, circles the dome, and then circles the Washington Monument, and finally alights with precision in Executive Street, between the Executive Offices and the building of the State, Army, and Navy Departments. After a brief call, he rose from the narrow street—but 20 feet wider than his biplane—and returned to the race track without untoward incident.
October 16, 1910—Wynmalen flies from Paris to Brussels, and returns, with one passenger, within the elapsed time of 27 hours 50 minutes, winning two prizes amounting to $35,000. The distance is 350 miles, and the actual time in the air was 15 hours 38 minutes.
October 25, 1910—J. Armstrong Drexel, with monoplane, at Belmont Park, L. I., rises to height of 7,105 feet, breaking previous records, and surpassing his own record of 6,600 feet, made at Lanark, Scotland.
October 26, 1910—Ralph Johnstone, in biplane, at Belmont Park, rises to the height of 7,313 feet, through sleet and snow, breaking the new American record made by Drexel the day before.
October 27, 1910—Johnstone, with biplane, at Belmont Park, rises to height of 8,471 feet, surpassing his own record of the day before and establishing a new American record. The feat was performed in a gale blowing nearly 60 miles per hour, and the aviator was carried 55 miles away from his starting point before he landed.
October 28, 1910—Tabuteau, with biplane, at Etampes, France, makes a new world’s endurance record of 6 hours’ continuous flight, covering a distance of 289 miles.
October 29, 1910—Grahame-White, with monoplane, at Belmont Park, wins the International speed race over the distance of 62.1 miles, in 1 hour 1 minute 4⅗ seconds.
October 29, 1910—Leblanc, with monoplane, at Belmont Park, makes a new world’s record for speed, reaching 70 miles per hour during the International speed race. Through a lack of fuel he lost the race to Grahame-White, after covering 59 miles in 52 minutes.
October 30, 1910—John B. Moisant, with monoplane, wins the race from Belmont Park around the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor, and the prize of $10,000. The distance is about 34 miles, and Moisant covered it in 34 minutes 39 seconds.
October 30, 1910—James Radley, with monoplane, at Belmont Park, wins the cross-country flight of 20 miles in 20 minutes 5 seconds.
October 31, 1910—Johnstone, with biplane, at Belmont Park, rises to a height of 9,714 feet, breaking the previous world’s record, made by Wynmalen on October 1.
October 31, 1910—Drexel, with monoplane, racing for altitude with Johnstone, reaches a height of 8,370 feet.
October 31, 1910—Moisant, with monoplane, at Belmont Park, wins the two-hour distance race with a record of 84 miles. His next nearest competitor covered but 57 miles.
November 14, 1910—Eugene Ely, with biplane, flew from a staging on the deck of the U. S. Cruiser Birmingham 8 miles to the shore near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. The flight was intended to end at the Norfolk Navy Yard, but an accident to the propeller at starting forced Ely to make directly for the shore.
November 17, 1910—Ralph Johnstone, holder of the world’s altitude record of 9,714 feet, was killed at Denver, Col., by a fall with his biplane.
November 23, 1910—Drexel, at Philadelphia, reaches an altitude of 9,970 feet, passing all other altitude records. Coming down he made a straight glide of seven miles.
December 2, 1910—Charles K. Hamilton, at Memphis, Tenn., flies 4 miles in 3 minutes 1 second, a speed of 79.2 miles per hour. This is a new world’s record.
Chapter XX.
EXPLANATION OF AERONAUTICAL TERMS.
Every development in human progress is marked by a concurrent development in language. To express the new ideas, new words appear, or new meanings are given to words already in use.
As yet, the vocabulary of aeronautics is in the same constructive and incomplete state as is the science to which it attempts to give voice, and the utmost that can be done at this time is to record such words and special meanings as are in use in the immediate present.
A
Adjusting Plane—A small plane, or surface, at the outer end of a wing, by which the lateral (from side to side) balance of an aeroplane is adjusted. It is not connected with the controlling mechanism, as are the ailerons—nor with any automatic device.
Aerodrome—A term used by Professor Langley as a better name for the aeroplane; but latterly it has been applied to the buildings in which airships are housed, and also in a few instances, as a name for the course laid out for aeronautical contests.
Aerofoil—Another name for the aeroplane, suggested as more accurate, considering that the surfaces are not true planes.
Aeronef—Another name for an aeroplane.
Aeroplane—The type of flying machine which is supported in the air by a spread of surfaces or planes, formerly flat, and therefore truly “plane,” but of late more or less curved. Even though not absolutely accurate, this term has resisted displacement by any other.
Aerostat—A free balloon afloat in the air.
Aeronate—A captive balloon.
Aileron—A small movable plane at the wing-tips, or hinged between the main planes, usually at their outer ends, operated by the aviator to restore the lateral balance of the machine when disturbed.
Air-speed—The speed of aircraft as related to the air in which they are moving; as distinguished from [land-speed] (which see).
Alighting Gear—Devices on the under side of the aeroplane to take up the jar of landing after flight, and at the same time to check the forward motion at that moment.
Angle of Entry—The angle made by the tangent to the curve of the aeroplane surface at its forward edge, with the direction, or line, of travel.
Angle of Incidence—The angle made by the chord of the arc of a curved “plane,” or by the line of a flat plane, with the line of travel.
Angle of Trail—The angle made by the tangent to the rear edge of a curved plane with the line of travel.
Apteroid—A form resembling the “short and broad” type of the wings of certain birds—as distinguished from the [pterygoid] (which see).
Arc—Any part of a circle, or other curved line.
Arch—The curve formed by bending the wings downward at the tips, leaving them higher at the centre of the machine.
Aspect—The view of the top of an aeroplane as it appears when looked down upon from above.
Aspiration—The (hitherto) unexplained tendency of a curved surface—convex side upward—to rise and advance when a stream of air blows against its forward edge and across the top.
Attitude—The position of a plane as related to the line of its travel; usually expressed by the angle of incidence.
Automatic Stability—That stability which is preserved by self-acting, or self-adjusting, devices which are not under the control of the operator, nor a fixed part of the machine, as are the adjusting planes.
Aviation—Flying by means of power-propelled machines which are not buoyed up in the air, as with gas bags.
Aviator—The operator, driver, or pilot of an aeroplane.