AEROPLANING.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 758, 5 March 1910, Page 5

AEROPLANING.

: $ THE WEIGHT OF MOTORS. I By TcleeraDh—Press Association— GopTcieht. London, March 3. In an address before the Aerial League, Sir Hiram Maxim (inventor of the automatic system of firearms, and a practical investigator in ' tlie heavicr-than-air branch of aerial navigation) predicted that, the weight of 150 liorse-power engines for military flying-machines would not exceed 300 pounds.

THE MAXIM BIPLANE. It was cabled, the other da.y that Sir Hiram Maxim had built a biplane 44ft. long (only,.a couplo of , feet shorter than that of; tho Wrights), with an 80 horsepower ongine, and a gyroscopic regulator,the machine weighing 2201b. It was pointed out at. the time that this weight would he not much more than a quarter of the weight of the Wrights' machine. To-day's cablegram makes it probable that the weight (2201b.) given in the prior cablegram referred to the weight of tho engine, not of tho whole biplane. If so, tho 80 horse-power, engine weighs 2201b., and the 150 horse-power engine is expected to weigh 3001b. The Santos Dumont monoplane Demoiselle, the smallest yot practically tested, with a 25 horsepower engine, and a wing surface of about 18ft. by sft., is expected to weigh, as a whole, atAlcast 2401b.

Lightness is, 'of course,, a great factor. It has been predicted that metallurgy will probably "provide lighter materials for tho construction of aeroplanes in the near future. Tho alloys of aluminium and the new kinds of steel will enable weight to bo reduced without any sacrifice of strength or strength to be increased without, any addition to the weight." .