Airship's Novel Test.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 260, 7 November 1904, Page 3

Airship's Novel Test.

TO BE DROPPED FROM THE CLOUDS TO RISE OR FALL.

No half measures are to be' taken with the latest "flying" maqhune when it is ready for its initial says the Daily Mail.

Theie will be a flight or a fall ; if the latter, there is not likely to be any airship left, for the machine is to be carried up into tho clouds by a balloon and then abandoned to its fate.

Brazil produced the first successful aeronaut on the "lighter than air" principle in the jierson of M. Santos Dumont; and now a second Brazilian, Serehor Alvares, has invented an ingenious machine on "heavier than air" lines. A fiist model, of mancarrying si'ze, has been built by Messrs C. G. Spencer and Sons in their Balloon Hall at Highbury Grove. A Daily Mail repiesentative inspected it, aind one point was very clear. The new airship is the prettiest yet made. The two arms in front of the kite have an exceedingly graceful curve, and the kite tapers gently away to the back of the machine, so that the whole contrivance when in flight should be like a swooping seagull. Two propellers, sft. in diameter, aie plaff-d in front. They are intended to aid the machine in its swoop, so that it Will rise after a dip to the altitude from which it started.

In a few days' time the machine will be raised 5000 ft into the air by balloon at tho Crystal Palace, and | with motor running at full-spcod it will be dropped in mid-air to test its centre of gravity, balance, and behaviour. Sandbags, representing a man, will be attacned.