A NEW AERIAL MACHINE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1991, 12 July 1880, Page 3

A NEW AERIAL MACHINE.

The “ Militar-Woohenblaff ” prints a description of an aerial machine, designed by a Spanish artillery officer, the construction of which is in the opinion of the German paper based upon correct principles. The machine, which is of considerable extension horizontally but of very small vertical dimensions, can be made to ascend or descend at pleasure, and can, according to the statement of the in ventor, bo turned in any required direction. It consists of two air-bags, as they are called by the inventor, one of which is filled with hydrogen gas and the other with compressed air. When the latter is so far filled that its weight, together with that of the car and its load, exactly counterbalances the lifting power of the former the machine naturally will neither rise nor fall. If the compressed air is allowed to escape from its bog the whole weight will be reduced and the machine will rise— the altitude it will attain depending upon the amount of compressed air liberated. If, on the other hand, it is desired to make the machine descend, air can, by a simple mechanical contrivance, be pumpsd into the compressed air-bag until the total weight of tho machine exceeds the buoyancy or lifting power of the hydrogen bag. To change the direction of the machine a rudder is provided, to be worked by a small steam-engine ; while by a simple arrangement the position of the centre of gravity of the whole apparatus can be altered so that ths resistance of the cur shall affect the machine in the most favourable manner possible. Tho machine, in fact, is designed to act in the same way that a bird does. When a bird wishes to change tho direction of its flight it lowers one wing and raises the other, and as it works the latter rapidly and diminishes the speed of ita flight, the resistance of the air on the oblique surface presented to it turns the bird round into the required course. In the now aerial machine this principle is applied ; but whether it will be possible to overcome the practical difficulties which may arise remains to be seen.