NO MYSTERY IN FLIGHT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2433, 23 February 1909, Page 3

NO MYSTERY IN FLIGHT.

ONE THING AA 7 AN TE D—PERSEVERANCE. Captain AV. G. AVindham, the founder of the British Aeroplane Club, returned to London in December 'from St. Petersburg having laid before the Ministry of AVar his plans for building the Russian Government an aeroplane guaranteed to fly 300 metres (about 350 yards). Explaining this limit in an interview with a representative of the “Pall Mall Gazette,” Captain Windham pointed out that an aeroplane that will fly 300 metres will as easily fly 30 miles, or more; it is simply a matter of adjustment. “I believe,” he said, “in using a more reliable and a heavier engine than that which is at present employed for aeroplanes, and to make up for the additional weight by having bigger planes. The lightness of the present engine is, in my opinion, keeping back successful flight. The French Aero Club consider if an engine in its trials runs for two consecutive hours, it is a sufficient guarantee of its readability. An aerial engine should, however, go much longer. lam going to try to use a light steam engine like that employed in the Stanley AVhito car. Mr Wilbur Wright, although he has ordered petrol engines for the present, also believes in the greater reliability of the steam engine, and thinks that sooner or later he will have to adopt it.” Captain AVindham deprecated the mystery that is made in some countries concerning the aoroplane. “There is no mystery at all,” he maintains. “Of course, it is a new science, and one must get used to it, just as one had to get used to cycling. Fear seems to be stopping many persons from taking it up. But, with ordinary care, there is nothing whatever to fear. “Look at Mr Mooro-Brabazon. . He only started on his trials a few weeks ago; now he is flying, and I believe he will heat many Frenchmen. You arc hound to fly in time if you only persevere. “Mr Farman’s is another case in point. At-first he could do nothing with his machine, but perseverance brought success. Now lie has so improved his machine, which is a triplane, another plane having been adder) above the others, that it is quite different from the .originals. “One of the most practical machines that I have seen is the new one belonging to M. Bloriot, with a horizontal rudder well out in front, after the principle of Mr AVright’s lifting plane —and the second rudder well behind—much further out, in fact, than in the machines that are usually made.” Touching on the progress of the movement in England, Captain Windham mentioned that the Aeroplane Club now numbers as many as nine hundred members, seven of whom are at work building their own planes. For the first British-built machine to fly Mr McKim has offered to members of .the club a- prize of £IOO.