Mr. Reed will not box any aerodrome till a certificate from Mr. Huffaker can be put on the inside cover, with the list of contents, showing what the conditions are as to weight, wing area, power, etc., and the person in the field charged with the duty of launching the aerodrome (at present Mr. Reed), is authorized not to let it go unless he is satisfied that it has a full forty seconds’ supply of steam. [p296]
I am satisfied that a great deal of time is lost in putting the aerodrome together for flight, owing to the absence of any preliminary drill in doing this. Before it goes into the field the whole is to be completely boxed, and then taken out from the box and set up on the clutch, and steam gotten up for flight. All this is to be done in the shop before the final boxing, and provision is to be made so that no wiring or adjusting of parts is to be done in the field which can possibly be avoided by forethought in the shop. The tail-piece, for instance, is to be bushed with brass, so that it will always come into the same place, and make a tight fit, in spite of wetting or shrinking, in the steel tube, where it is to go into a guide-way with a bayonet spring, or a like contrivance for setting it at once securely into position.
The mean positions of the wings and tail are to be laid out in some way permanently on the mid-rod, but every guy-rod or adjustable piece is to be arranged so as to fit at once securely and permanently in its position without wiring or like slow process.
Very truly yours,
S. P. LANGLEY,
Secretary.
W. C. WINLOCK, Esq.,
Assistant in Charge,
Smithsonian Institution.
A copy to be communicated to:——