At the present moment, Neale, in England, is reported to be building a dirigible for a speed of a hundred miles per hour. The Siemens-Schuckart non-rigid machine, nearly 400 feet long and of 500 horse-power, is being tried out at Berlin: it is said to carry fifty passengers. [1] Fabrice, of Munich, is experimenting with the Inchard, with a view to crossing the Atlantic at an early date. Mr. Vaniman, partner of Wellman on the America expedition, is planning a new dirigible which it is proposed to fly across the ocean before July 4. The engine, according to press reports, will develop 200 horse-power, and the envelope will be more elongated than that of the America. And meanwhile a Chicago despatch describes a projected fifty-passenger machine, to have a gross lifting power of twenty-five tons!
The First Flight for the Gordon-Bennet Cup.
Won by Lieut. Frank P. Lahm, U.S.A., 1906. Figures on the map denote distances in kilometers. The cup has been offered annually by Mr. James Gordon-Bennet for international competition under such conditions as may be prescribed by the International Aeronautic Federation.
Germany has a slight lead in number of dirigible balloons—sixteen in commission and ten building. France follows closely with fourteen active and eleven authorized. This accounts for two-thirds of all the dirigible balloons in the world. Great Britain, Italy, and Russia rank in the order named. The United States has one balloon of the smallest size. Spain has, or had, one dirigible. As to aeroplanes, however, the United States and England rank equally, having each about one-fourth as many machines as France (which seems, therefore, to maintain a “four-power standard”). Germany, Russia, and Italy follow, in order, the United States. These figures include all machines, whether privately or nationally owned. Until lately, our own government operated but one aeroplane. A recent appropriation by Congress of $125,000 has led to arrangements for the purchase of a few additional biplanes of the Wright and Curtiss types; and a training school for army officers has been regularly conducted at San Diego, Cal., during the past winter. The Curtiss machine to be purchased is said to carry 700 pounds of dead weight with a sail area of 500 square feet. It is completely demountable and equipped with pontoons.
THE QUESTION OF POWER
In the year 1810, a steam engine weighed something over a ton to the horse-power. This was reduced to about 200 pounds in 1880. The steam-driven dirigible balloon of Giffard, in 1852, carried a complete power plant weighing a little over 100 pounds per horse-power; about the weight of a modern locomotive. The unsuccessful Maxim flying machine of 1894 brought this weight down to less than 20 pounds. The gasoline engine on the original Wright machines weighed about 5 pounds to the horse-power; those on some recent French machines not far from 2 pounds.