CHAPTER VIII

HISTORY OF CONSTRUCTION OF SUSTAINING AND GUIDING SURFACES OF AERODROMES 4, 5 AND 6

INTRODUCTION

In some early experiments in 1887 with the small models without motor power, which have not been particularly described, two pairs of wings, in the same plane, were employed for reasons connected with stability. Afterward, in many of the rubber-driven motor models, which have been described in Chapter II, two large front wings were employed and the following pair were diminished into what may properly be called a tail. This plan was a retrogression in design, and it was pursued by the writer with a pertinacity which was not justified by the results obtained, being used even on the early rubber-driven models.

In this construction, it will be observed that the flat tail was in fact not only a guiding but a sustaining surface, since it bore its own share of the weight. It was not until a much later date (November, 1895) that the writer returned to his earlier construction of two pairs of wings in the same plane bearing the whole weight of the aerodrome, to which was now added a flat tail, whose function was not to support, but wholly to guide. This was developed into the final construction by the addition of a vertical rudder or rudders.

The present chapter is not concerned with the history of the earlier attempts with small models, or of those numerous constructions of sustaining surfaces which were never put to actual trial; nor does it give any description of the experiments which were made in placing one set of surfaces over the other, according to a method suggested in “Experiments in Aerodynamics.”[27]

The experiments in “Aerodynamics,” and the theoretical considerations given in Chapter V on sustaining surfaces, would never alone have led to the construction which was finally reached, which was largely due to the hard lessons taught by incessant accident and failure in the field. The present chapter, therefore, should be read in connection not only with the pages of “Aerodynamics,” but with Chapters V and IX of this book.

It is to be remembered that, while the center of gravity of the aerodrome could be determined readily and exactly, the center of pressure could be determined only approximately in advance of trial in actual flight. The positions [p081] of the supporting surfaces given in this chapter are, then, approximations made from rules for “balancing,” ‹i. e.›, for obtaining equilibrium in actual flight, rules which are in fact tentative, since they are founded on ‹a priori› considerations with partial correction from the empirical knowledge gained by previous field trials. For these rules see