Mr. Huffaker,
Mr. Reed,
Mr. Maltby.
FOOTNOTES.
[37] “The Flying Machine” McClure’s Magazine, June, 1897.
[38] One noted astronomer and mathematician re-affirmed this opinion as late as 1900 and even stated that man could not hope to construct a flying machine capable of sustaining a weight as great as our largest birds, knowing that even at that time the model Aerodromes Nos. 5 and 6 had already done more than this.
[39] These wings are described in Chapter VI, pp. [191].
[40] See “Experiments in Aerodynamics.” It will be recalled that in the experiments with the “plane-dropper” there was a greatly reduced lifting power with superposed planes when their distance apart was one-half the width the planes, unless a speed of about 42.5 feet a second was obtained. In the above tests with the superposed wings, the speed was only from twenty to twenty-two feet a second at the time of launching, and as the distance between the surfaces was only one-half as great as their width, it is not surprising that the lifting power should not be as great as with the “single-tier” wings.
[41] In fact the setting of the tail at a negative angle and fastening it to the frame by an elastic or spring connection was only begun in 1896, and while it proved to be the key to the solution of the problem of automatic longitudinal stability, yet it was not at that time so recognized, although the first real test of the aerodromes after the elastic connection and negative angle of the tail were adopted resulted in the epoch-making flight of No. 5 on May 6. By comparing the angle of the tail on No. 5 in Plate [27A], Part I, with the angle of the tail on No. 6 in Plate [27B], Part I, it will be seen that while the first had an angle of much less than 5 degrees, the latter had an angle of about 15 degrees. But the wooden springs changed so that it was not accurately known what the angle really was at the time at either flight in 1896.
[42] The drawings, Plate [55], which illustrate many of the fittings used on the frame, show the guy-wires as attached by means of loops twisted in their ends, these drawings having been made before the final plan of attaching the wires had been devised.