After the previous article, in which we see that Santos=Dumont made his flights accompanied by the scientific community, tested and questioned to exhaustion, while the Wrights, supposedly flew away from the public eye. As we saw in the other article that several pioneers relied on weak testimonies in beautiful stories, which seem more like legend than science, such as of the Shivkar Bapuji Talpade and Wright’s, who seem to have been chosen the first to fly as a mere matter of 'American national agenda', we will see in this last and conclusive article the definitive 'birth certificate of the flight', reported by none other than the journal Nature - since always, the most respected magazine in the scientific world.
Read and follow what happened in 1906, when Santos=Dumont was in the spotlight of the human-flight vanguard, in its most diverse forms, while no one had ever heard of the Wright Brothers.
The First “Manned” Flying Machine - Issue Date
08 November 1906
THE FIRST “MANNED" FLYING MACHINE.
OCTOBER 23 of the present year will be remembered as a red-letter day in the history of flying machines, for it was on that day that the first flying machine, constructed on the “heavier than air” principle, successfully raised itself and its driver from the ground several feet, and transported itself by means of its own power over a distance of eighty yards.
In this his first successful flight with this machine, M. Santos Dumont is to be sincerely congratulated, for he has accomplished a performance which many workers in different parts of the world have been striving after for many years past and failed. M. Santos Dumont's machine is built on the aëroplane principle, and mounted on two wheels. It is fitted with an eight-cylinder, 60 h.p. motor weighing about 170 lb., and drives an aluminium fan, which makes 1000 to 1500 revolutions a minute. The motor is the work of the Adams Manufacturing Company, England. With its driver the machine weighs about 750 lb.
The aëroplane is shaped like a large T placed horizontally. The short arms of the T are slightly inclined upwards, and are each composed of three compartments, like three box-kites tied together side by side. At the base of the T is a large compartment, also like a box-kite, and by manipulating about a horizontal axis the upper and lower surfaces act as a powerful rudder. This rudder arrangement is at the front end of the aëroplane, and the operator stands on a platform midway between, and nearly on a level with, the lower surfaces of the two main inclined arms. The driven fan is situated at the rear of the machine, just behind the operator, at the junction of the two main inclined arms.
Now that success has rewarded this daring investigator, it is of interest to take a cursory glance at the steps which ultimately led the way to success.
One naturally, in the first instance, calls to mind the very interesting experiments carried out in 1893 by Herr Otto Lilienthal near Berlin (NATURE, vol. xlix., p. 157), because Santos Dumont's aëroplane is, generally speaking, somewhat after the style of the gliding machines used by him. Lilienthal's experiments were confined to trying to learn soaring, and he employed slightly curved wings having a surface of about 15 square metres. With this inclined planes, and eventually vertical and horizontal rudders, he started from the top of a hill, and after a few steps forward jumped into the air and glided sometimes 250 metres. Lilienthal depended for the success of his apparatus on himself, trusting to his instinct to be able to keep his balance by making the necessary compensating adjustments by moving his own centre of gravity. In later experiments he employed some mechanical aid to assist him in sustaining himself longer in the air. This consisted of a small machine driven by compressed carbonic acid gas, and operating a series of feather-like sails which were capable of flapping. He found that occasional flapping of these wings helped him to cover longer distances.
In 1895 he adopted a new principle, and instead of using one large framework, employed two smaller ones, placed parallel one above the other; this method he found distinctly advantageous (NATURE, Vol. lii., p. 300).
About this time Lilienthal's soaring experiments began to be taken up both in this country and in America. Mr. Percy 'S. Pilecher in England gained considerable experience both in the making and in the handling of these aëroplanes (NATURE, vol. Ivi., p. 344). Unfortunately, as in the case of Herr Lilienthal, an accident during his experiments re sulted in his death. Pilcher, however, was quite aware of the importance of using some motive power, and some time before his death proposed to employ, and actually began to make, a small and light engine, indicating about 4 h.p., to drive a fan, this being considered by him as more than sufficient for flights of moderate length. With this advance it was hoped that much greater distances could be covered, and a nearer approximation to a flying machine attained.
There is little doubt that if Pilcher had been spared he would soon have constructed and made use of the latest and lightest form of motor, and probably been led to use the double-decked form of aeroplane adopted by Santos Dumont.
By embodying the best ideas of his predecessors and using his own ingenuity to make the aëroplane a practical flying machine, Santos Dumont has advanced the science of aëronautics a very considerable step. The petrol motor has no doubt helped greatly in facilitating this progress, since high-powered engines of comparatively very light weight can be constructed.
In this pioneer work of navigating the air the work of Hiram Maxim and S. P. Langley must not be forgotten. Maxim made numerous attempts to drive his flying machine at such a speed that it would be lifted off the rails on which it ran, but on fully accomplished. Further, it was not known whether it would capsize or not if it was set free. Langley, on the other hand, was undoubtedly the first to demonstrate that a machine heavier than air could be made to travel in the air driven by its own all "unmanned," but nevertheless much valuable in- formation was accumulated.
This the last achievement of Santos Dumont will no doubt give a fresh impetus to the problem of flight, and those who have the money and time have now before them a successful aëroplane that can serve as a starting point.
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