BIRD-LIKE AEROPLANES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 199, 11 January 1913, Page 1 (Supplement)

BIRD-LIKE AEROPLANES

.SOME RECENT ADVANCES. It is significant that, though the first living Machine-- the Wright biplam—had as little surest ion of a bird as anything in the air could have, the most effective aeroplanes of the present day. a.-, regards speed, closely resemble living winged cieat ures. .\'lan. having discovered the secret of living, has appareutly found that, the ibcst, results are obtained by following on Nature's own lines. Anyone who has seen a Bleriot monoplane approaching at a considerable distance and height would be puzzled lo distinguish it from a swallow, until the whirr of the (limine, engine destroyed the illusion. And this parallel is even closer In many of the newer t\pes of machines, some of which have ben entered for the military aeroplane dials at Salisbury Plain. One of them i- the Mars iiioiiojilanc. built by the (ier- { man Aircraft Works, which' has met with considerable -.access in the country of its origin. Like the majority of (lernian aeroplanes, the tips 'of the main ■plane are swept a little backwards, and Ihe trailing edge curved upwards. Thai of itself follows the bint model, and the cllVct is heightened by a largo tail. The Harriot monoplane, of foreign design, but built in Kngland. is rema'rka.biy bird-like, and so is the Yickers monoplane, which Ims been putting in exccllint work of.late. The Lohner "Arrowplane'' Dreadnought biplane rather suggests a stork in flight—one of the few biplanes that is not obviously an artificial liver. The llandley-Page monoplane «. HritiMi machine-is very like a Hung fish. laen Mr.. ! Vuly's biplane, vhicli tills so large a space i]) the sky as well as in the public eye. may possibly h\\v its undoubted success jo iis likeness to .-.|inc prehistoric winged <ieal lire. There | 6 another machine which might be mistaken lor ;\ seagull. This is the (lunula monoplane, .built in Cii rinany. ft is bui'it entirely of steel tubes and steel plate, while the engine and tandem, scats of pilot and passenger are enclosed, only the lieatts of the occupants being exposed. .■ Tlim planes are curved, and rudder and elevator arc in ilioJgjge tail, Jj^^fc.