The result is well known to all.
PRESENT STATUS OF THE WORK
The completely repaired frame of the large machine is now stored in one of the workshops at the Smithsonian Institution. The large engine, the steam-driven models Nos. 5 and 6, and the quarter-size model, driven by the three [p282] horse-power gasoline engine, are on exhibition at the U. S. National Museum. The launching-car and a small amount of materials have also been stored away. The large house-boat, the construction and maintenance of which proved such a serious drain on the finances, and the preservation of which would have entailed the continuance of heavy fixed charges, has been turned over to the War Department and sold, as has also the power-launch and other paraphernalia which it seemed useless to preserve.
The writer is firmly convinced that the aerodrome is not only correct in principle but that it possesses no inherent faults or weaknesses, and that the success which the work deserves has been frustrated by two most unfortunate accidents in the launching of the machine. Other plans of launching, several of which were studied out during the early stages of the work on the large machine, would have avoided the accident which did occur, but, of course, might have produced others possibly even more disastrous, but which could be determined only by actual trial. But even recognizing certain fundamental weaknesses of the launching mechanism as used, he believes that there is no inherent reason why the machine should not have been successfully launched, and that the accidents which proved so disastrous in the two experiments were not such as should cause a lack of confidence in the final success of the aerodrome.
It might be of interest to add that the writer is now preparing to resume the work at the earliest opportunity, and that the machine will be used in practically the form in which it existed at the two previous experiments, though a slight change will be made permitting experiments over the land rather than the water. The only thing that prevents an immediate resumption is the pressure of private business matters.
Before closing this record the writer wishes to acknowledge the very valuable assistance in the work rendered by Mr. Richard Rathbun, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, through his moral support and interest in it at all times, and especially during the trying days of the summer of 1903; by Captain I. N. Lewis, who, while Recorder of the Board of Ordnance and Fortification from 1898 to 1902, manifested keen interest in the work and gave it his moral support before the Board; by Professor John M. Manly, who devoted the whole of the summer of 1903 to it; and by Professor W. G. Manly, who devoted a large part of the summer of 1903 to assistance in the preparation for the actual field-trials of the aerodrome.
Mention must also be made of the very loyal and valuable services rendered by Mr. R. L. Reed, the very efficient foreman of the work during the last ten years of its progress, to whom much credit is due for his perseverance and skill in overcoming many of the difficulties which presented themselves, as well as to Mr. G. D. McDonald, Mr. C. H. Darcey, Mr. F. Hewitt, Mr. R. S. Newham [p283] and the other employees who labored faithfully for the several years they were engaged on it.
BLÉRIOT MACHINE OF 1907 ON LANGLEY TYPE
Since completing the preparation of this Memoir, the writer’s attention has been called to some very interesting tests made at Issy by M. Louis Blériot with a machine of the Langley type. These tests confirm in such a practical manner the conviction that the large aerodrome would have flown successfully had it not been wrecked in launching that it has seemed well to here quote an interesting description of them published in the “Bollettino della Società Aeronautica Italiana, August, 1907,” under the title “Il nuovo aeroplano Blériot,” a translation of which is as follows:
THE NEW BLÉRIOT AEROPLANE