Chapter IV.
FLYING MACHINES.
Mythological—Leonardo da Vinci—Veranzio—John Wilkins—Besnier—Marquis de Bacqueville—Paucton—Desforges—Meerwein—Stentzel—Henson—Von Drieberg—Wenham—Horatio Phillips—Sir Hiram Maxim—Lilienthal—Langley—Ader—Pilcher—Octave Chanute—Herring—Hargrave—The Wright brothers—Archdeacon—Santos-Dumont—Voisin—Bleriot.
The term Flying Machines is applied to all forms of aircraft which are heavier than air, and which lift and sustain themselves in the air by mechanical means. In this respect they are distinguished from balloons, which are lifted and sustained in the air by the lighter-than-air gas which they contain.
From the earliest times the desire to fly in the air has been one of the strong ambitions of the human race. Even the prehistoric mythology of the ancient Greeks reflected the idea in the story of Icarus, who flew so near to the sun that the heat melted the wax which fastened his wings to his body, and he fell into the sea.
Perhaps the first historical record in the line of mechanical flight worthy of attention exists in the remarkable sketches and plans for a flying mechanism left by Leonardo da Vinci at his death in 1519. He had followed the model of the flying bird as closely as possible, although when the wings were outspread they had an outline more like those of the bat. While extremely ingenious in the arrangement of the levers, the power necessary to move them fast enough to lift the weight of a man was far beyond the muscular strength of any human being.
It was a century later, in 1617, that Veranzio, a Venetian, proved his faith in his inventive ability by leaping from a tower in Venice with a crude, parachute-like contrivance. He alighted without injury.
In 1684, an Englishman, John Wilkins, then bishop of Chester, built a machine for flying in which he installed a steam-engine. No record exists of its performance.
In 1678, a French locksmith by the name of Besnier devised what seems now a very crude apparatus for making descending flights, or glides, from elevated points. It was, however, at that date considered important enough to be described in the Journal of the Savants. It was a wholly unscientific combination of the “dog-paddle” motion in swimming, with wing areas which collapsed on the upward motion and spread out on the downward thrust. If it was ever put to a test it must have failed completely.
In 1742, the Marquis de Bacqueville constructed an apparatus which some consider to have been based on Besnier’s idea—which seems rather doubtful. He fastened the surfaces of his aeroplane directly to his arms and legs, and succeeded in making a long glide from the window of his mansion across the garden of the Tuileries, alighting upon a washerwoman’s bench in the Seine without injury.