The weight of the rubber in each tube was 72 grammes, or 0.16 pounds; mean speed of flight in horizontal distance 412 metres (about 15 feet) per second.[16]
From experiments already referred to, there were found available 300 foot-pounds of energy in a pound of rubber as employed, and in 0.16 of a pound, 48 foot-pounds of energy were used; 4833,000 or 0.00145 = the horse-power exerted in [p019] one minute, but as the power was in fact expended in 1/20 of that time we have 20 × 0.00145 = 0.029; that is, during the brief flight, about 0.03 of a horse-power was exerted, and this sustained a total weight of only about a pound.
In comparing this flight with the ideal conditions of horizontal flight in “Aerodynamics,” it will be remembered that this model’s flight was so irregular and so far from horizontal, that in one case it flew up and struck the lofty ceiling. The angle with the horizon is, of course, so variable as to be practically unknown, and therefore no direct comparison can be instituted with the data given on page 107 of “Experiments in Aerodynamics,” but we find from these that at the lowest speed there given of about 35 feet per second, 0.03 of a horse-power exerted for three seconds would carry nearly one pound through a distance of somewhat over 100 feet in horizontal flight.
The number of turns of the propellers multiplied by the pitch corresponds to a flight of about 16 metres, while the mean actual flight was about 12. It is probable, however, that there was really more slip than this part of the observation would indicate. It was also observed that there seemed to be very little additional compensatory gain in the steering of No. 30 for the weight of the long rudder-tail it carried. It may be remarked that in subsequent observations the superiority of the curved wing in lifting power was confirmed, though it was found more liable to accident than the flatter one, tending to turn the model over unless it was very carefully adjusted.
It may also be observed that these and subsequent observations show, as might have been anticipated, that as the motor power increased, the necessary wing surface diminished, but that it was in general an easier and more efficient employment of power to carry a surface of four feet sustaining area to the pound than one of three, while one of two feet to the pound was nearly the limit that could be used with the rubber motor.[17]
It may be remarked that the flights this day, reckoned in horizontal distance, were exceptionally short, but that the best flights at other times obtained with these models (30 and 31) did not exceed 25 metres. Such observations were continued in hundreds of trials, without any much more conclusive results. [p020]
The final results, then, of the observations with rubber-driven models (which were commenced as early as 1887, continued actively through the greater portion of the year 1891 and resumed, as will be seen later, even as late as 1895), were not such as to give information proportioned to their trouble and cost, and it was decided to commence experiments with a steam-driven aerodrome on a large scale.
[p021]