Download Photo

Henson and Stringfellow built in 1845 a model which weighed about 30 lbs.; and although its stability was not perfect, it was an interesting machine—a forecast of the monoplane of the future. Here one saw the lifting planes take shape; the body between the wings; the tail-planes at the rear; and, above all, a suggestion of the means by which machines would be driven through the air: the fitting to the model, that is to say, of revolving propellers or screws. When an inventor has fitted an engine to an aircraft, means must be devised for using its power to drive the machine through the air; and to make the wings flap like those of a bird, has been found so complicated, owing to the mechanism necessary to imitate natural movements, that much of the power is wasted. Inventors such as Henson and Stringfellow, realising this difficulty, made wings that were outstretched and immovable, like those of a bird when it is soaring, and relied upon screw propellers—which they set spinning at great speed by means of their engines—to thrust their craft forward through the air.

Author

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Aeroplane, by Claude Grahame-White and Harry Harper
Published 1914

Posted on

Thursday 7 May 2020

Dimensions

900*384

Tags

Albums

• Technology / Transport / Air

Visits

584

Downloads

27