LONDON
E. & F. N. SPON, Ltd., 57 HAYMARKET

New York
SPON & CHAMBERLAIN, 123 LIBERTY STREET

1911

CONTENTS

PAGE
[Frontispiece]iv
[Preface]ix
CHAPTER
I.[The Importance of Stability]11
II.[Speed as a Means of Stability]14
III.[The Low Centre of Gravity]17
IV.[Short Span and Area]28
V.[Variable Speed and the Parachute Principle]36
VI.[The Design which Fulfils the Conditions]39

PREFACE

Since there is nothing new under the sun, it is useless to pretend that there is anything new in the design here advocated or the theories advanced. Both are rather the result of a commonsense consideration of the different points of all flying machines, natural and artificial, and an endeavour to select from the great number of good points those which seem most likely to blend together into a practical machine. The conclusions reached are the result of a quite independent investigation, carried on over three years by means of numberless experiments, and the writer has endeavoured to make no single statement which he cannot by some experiment amply prove.