FLAPPING WINGS.

Shannon News, 11 April 1928, Page 3

FLAPPING WINGS.

A FLYING POSSIBILITY.

The possibilities of flying by means of flapping wings without the aid of any mechanical power, were demonstrated recently by Captain Victor Dibovsky,. formerly chief of the Imperial Russian Naval Aviation mission to the Allies, in a lecture to the Society of Model Aeronautical Engineers in London.

With models the lecturer illustrated his claim' to have solved the apparently insurmountable difficulty. Having shown how the weight of the man and the machine, which he estimated at 150 lb. each, would force the wings upward, Captain Dibovsky set counteracting that by interconnecting the wings with what he described as “additional muscles’’ and which were represented in the model by elastic. These had the effect of keeping the wings horizontal even when the weight was attached. “Thus,” he said, “I have neutralised with these additional muscles the power of lift on the wings from the air pressure, and this principle makes it .possible to flap the wings without any extraordinary power.” To flap gently, said Captain Dibovsky, would only require 201 b to 251 b. on each foot. , His study of birds had shown him that birds flew better in the sunshine. . This was because, when the sunrays struck the upper part of the wings, they warmed them, and tho density of the air above beeamo less; while the shadow of the wings created a motion of the air beneath and gave a better lifting power.