Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 288, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 December 1910 — AERIAL NAVIGATION NOW A REALITY. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

AERIAL NAVIGATION NOW A REALITY.

THE problem of aerial navigation has appealed to the mind of man for centuries. In no branch of scientific investigation has man been so enthusiasEso daring and so willing to risk his to demonstrate the validity of his tries, whose unsoundness has been proved, in many cases, by the injury (or death of the misguided theorist The evolution of aeronautics, from the winged flight of Daedalus and his son Icarus to the triumph of the Wright (brothers, Is a history full of failure •nd discouragements that tells the .story of man’s unceasing and stubborn fight to conquer the elements. The men who devote their lives to the study of aviation have met with many and various obstacles which tend to place them In the eyes of the public as visionaries held in the spell of a foolish dream. The deception of the public by charlatans, the impossible claims of cranks, the use of balloons and parachutes for spectacular leaps for life to attract the bucolic (multitude to country fairs and clr<uses, together with the failure of (many projects of real scientific value, have, until the last decade, caused the generality of thinking mankind to look somewhat askance on aeronautics as • science. The scientific investigation of aerial conditions has been one of the main ■factors in the success of aerial navigations and the epoch-making researches of the late Professor Langley, which tn 1891 he published in a book entitled Experiments on Aerodynamics, have "been the foundation upon which our (present day system of aerial flight is based. Aerodynamics as a science is C. In Ms Infancy and has not emerged m the experimental stage, while the •theory of air pressures and resistances •on moving surfaces Is little understood. The problem of maintaining

stability In artificial flight has been only approximately solved First Efforts to Fly. In ancient times it was believed that to fly was, by divine decree, impossible. The Greeks and Romans held that the power of flight was an attribute only of the highest and most powerful divinities. During the middle ages there were many myths and fables in circulation of certain favored Individuals who had flown for great distances on wings. Frair Bacon claimed that he had discovered the art of flying and Albertus Magnus, the noted phiolospher, in his work, Mirabi--Ins Naturae, gave a recipe for aerial navigation. From the sixteenth to the eighteen century there were numerous enthusiasts who, thinking they had discovered the secret that would render them masters of the air, flew forth from the tops of buildings only to be dashed to their death. Efforts to fly by means of flapping wings were the chief causes of the slow progress of the flying art Once the Idea of soaring through the air—a theory arrived at by Professor Lillenthal in 1891— was discovered to be productive of success the science of aeronautics advanced by leaps and bounds. The first successful attempt at aerial flight was made In the eighteenth century by a French marquis, who endeavored to fly across the Seine from an upper window of his house in Paris. He succeeded In getting almost to the opposite bank when he fell Into a boat and was rescued. In the seventeenth century Borelll calculated the strength of the pectoral muscles of birds and laid down the postulate that It was Impossible for man to fly by use of his muscular strength. This doctrine seems to have been accepted, and no attempts at ar- . tifldal flight were made until toward

the close of the nineteenth century. The Invention of the balloon by the Montgolfier brothers, and their first public ascent in 1782, directed the attention of the world to this new means of aerial navigation, and in less than three years after the Montgolfiers’ first ascension was made the English channel was crossed in a balloon from Dover to Calais by Blanchard and Doctor Jeffries, in 1785. Professor Langley the Pioneer. In the same year that Professor Lilenthal made his soaring experiments Professor Langley, in a steam driven aeroplane model, flew across the Potomac river, a distance of threequarters of a mile. Later when he had received appropriations from the government for the perfection of his machine he attempted a second flight across the Potomac. He flew tor a distance of 90 feet, when something went wrong and the machine plunged into the river. Further experiments on the part of the government were discontinued, and while it is known now that the principles of the learned professor were correct, Langley, at the time, received nothing but the severest criticism and ridicule. Professor Langley was probably the first one to experiment with an aeroplane driven by steam or any like force and his experiments proved conclusively that with sufficient speed-producing force behind it an aeroplane could soar great distances through the air. He, is the pioneer of the aeroplane and recent aviators owe their success to the principles which he set forth. In Dayton, 0., there lived two young men known as Wilbur and Orville Wright They were Interested in the bicycle industry. In the early ’9o*s they became interested in aviation and reading up the theories of Lillenthal they became very enthusiastic over the art of artificial flight In 1900

they constructed a machine and during their summer vacation on the coast of North Carolina they began experiments with a gliding aeroplane. In 1903 they added a 16-horsepower motor to their glider and In December of that year uucceeded in making flights of 850 feet In 59 seconds against a 29-mile wind. In 1905 they made a flight of 24 miles in 38 minutes and from that time on were hailed as the first real conquerors of the air. A New Era. The year 1909 will go down to posterity as the beginning of a new era In the art of aviation. The records made show an enormous advance in lengths of flights, heights and feats of daring. In this country Curtiss flew for 67 H minutes In July, and at the official trials at Fort Myer, Orville Wright remained to the air for one hour and 21 minutes, covering 50 miles with a passenger. Curtiss won the Bennett speed contest at Rhelms, bringing the contest this year to this country. Bierlot made his historic cross-channel flight on July 25, making a distance of 31 miles In 37 minutes. Farnham made a duration flight of four hours, 17 minutes and 35 seconds, covering 137 miles. Orville Wright, Latham and Paulham reached altitudes exceeding 1,500 feet The events of this year are so fresh in the memory that it is unnecessary to recall the numerous and almost dally conquests that occurred during Its Span. The wonderful achievements accomplished in this year were due not so much to a more perfect mechanism In the aeroplanes but to the increased confidence and skill of the aviators: During recent aviation meets the mile point In altitude had been reached by the skilful and daring Brookins.

A WRIGHT AEROPLANE