The Romance of War Inventions / A Description of Warships, Guns, Tanks, Rifles, Bombs, and Other Instruments and Munitions of Warfare, How They Were Invented & How They Are Employed

by Thomas W. Corbin

So we will look only at the construction of the aeroplane in a general way, to do which we must first consider why it flies at all. It is due to the well-established law that action is always accompanied by a reaction equally strong and in the opposite direction. When a gun is fired the explosion not only drives the shell forward but equally drives the gun itself backward. The backward energy of the recoil is precisely equal to the forward energy of the shell. The two are equal but in opposite directions. In like manner a rocket ascends because the hot gases from the paper cylinder blow forcibly downwards, thereby producing an equal reaction upwards.

Now the plane of a flying machine is held with its forward edge a little higher than its rear edge, so that as it is pushed along it tends to catch the air and throw it downwards. Hence the reaction tends to lift the plane upwards. When the machine starts the reaction is not sufficient to overcome gravity, which is trying to hold the machine down upon the ground, but as the speed increases and the air is thrust down with more and more violence the point is ultimately reached when the reaction is able to overcome gravity and the machine ascends.

When a sufficient height is reached, the pilot alters the position of his horizontal rudder or "elevator" so as to make the position of the plane more flat, with the result that it throws the air downwards to a less extent, and the reaction is thereby reduced until it is only just sufficient to keep the machine at the same height. To descend, the position of the plane is made still flatter, the reaction is reduced still more and gravity has its way once again, bringing the machine to earth.

In other words, the machine acts under the influence of two forces: the downward pull of gravity and the upward reaction due to the action of the machine in throwing the air downward. The former never varies, the latter can be varied by the pilot at will: he can increase it by increasing the speed or by increasing the tilt of his plane or planes: he can reduce it by diminishing the speed or the tilt. Since generally speaking the speed of his engine will remain constant, he rises, remains at the same height or falls, at will, by the simple manipulation of the elevator through which he can change the tilt or inclination.

Most machines have a fixed tail as well as a horizontal rudder or elevator, the same being so set that it tends to keep the plane in a certain normal inclination, the elevator being called in to increase that or diminish it as may be required.

In addition to the elevator there is also another rudder of the ordinary kind, such as every ship and boat has, for guiding the machine to right or left. The elevator steers up and down, the rudder steers to either hand.

Provision is also made for balancing the machine. This is sometimes in the form of two small planes hinged to the main plane, one at either end, connected together and to a controlling lever by wires, so that by their use the pilot can steer the right-hand side of his machine upwards and the left-hand downward, or vice versa, if through any cause he finds a tendency to capsize.

In some machines the same effect is produced not by separate planes but by pulling the main plane itself somewhat out of shape, but precisely the same principle is involved.