CAPE TIMES –
1933, September 28
In Science,
Mechanics & Invention, the Age of the Bird Man is foreseen.
Today in the
most matter-of-fact manner you step into your motor car, press the accelerator
and quickly travel to your destination.
Tomorrow, as
indicated by recent discoveries in the science of aviation, you will be able to
strap on a pair of wings, set in motion the machinery that will make them flap,
soar through the air and speedily reach your journey’s end.
Men will soon
be flying like birds, according to Professor Antoine Magnan, technical adviser
of the French Air Ministry. In an address before the French Academy of Science
this authority on aviation vividly described the early development of a
gigantic new industry, which would spring up almost overnight, for he foresees
countless millions of winged men.8
Professor
Magnan has been studying the flight of birds and insects for more than 20
years, with the idea of making aircraft more efficient. He has experimented
with 500 different kinds of birds, as well as innumerable insects, and has
written more than 30 000 detailed reports on flights.
NEW TYPE
OF PLANE
This French
investigator, however, is not alone in his investigations to solve the secrets
of the investigations to solve the secrets of the bird’s power of flight. Johnathan
E. Caldwell, of Madison, New Jersey, likewise has been studying for years the
wings of birds to discover their secrets of aerial propulsion. As a result of
his investigations Mr. Caldwell has designed a new type of an aeroplane which
embodies many of the principles he discovered that birds use in flying.
Mr.
Caldwell’s plane is equipped with three wings, instead of the bird’s one, on
each side. His plane uses a rotary motion where the bird uses a flapping action.
The three wings, revolving, give a balanced action, a fly-wheel effect. The
valves in the wings open on the upstroke and close on the downstroke, and thus
function exactly as the feathers in a bird’s wing. The power impulse on the
down-stroke, when the valves are closed, is a lifting impulse, thus keeping the
plane in the air. In vertical ascent and descent, the wings are maintained in a
neutral angle and in forward flight they are tilted into a negative or gliding
angle while revolving. Altitude is regulated by the degree of rotation and
controlled by the pilot at the throttle.
The idea of
man flying with beating wings is several thousand years old, but it has
suddenly become practicable, Professor Magnan points out, because of the
development of motors, of increased knowledge of air structure, and most of
all, because rapid motion pictures have revealed the mechanism of winged
flight.
THE
“BIRD-MAN”
By
ultra-rapid motion pictures, and by using mixtures of tinted smoke so that the
air movements round a flying bird literally can be dissected, aviation experts
now understand for the first time just what is necessary for winged flight and
so the era of bird-men is at hand, Prof. Magnan predicts. “I am certain
that in a comparatively short time, perhaps two or three years, men will be
frolicking about in the sky like birds,” says Prof. Magnan. “A man fitted with
two wings, each with four or five square feet of surface, can fly with his own
bodily energy if he can make his wings beat somewhere between 13 and 20 strokes
a second. The man and
his machine should not weigh more than 220 lb. for wings of this size.
Naturally the wings would have a full spread in the downward beat and be turned
sideways for the upward beat. The angle of the arc made by the wings would be
45 or 50 degrees. The flier would hardly have sufficient power to climb, though
upward wind currents would lift him, but he could fly horizontally as long as
his strength held out.” Prof. Magnan
describes the bird-man’s flying equipment as a motored machine consisting of a
light frame, including a seat, with two wings. Each wing would be from 60 ins.
to 80 ins. long and the shape of half a leaf, cut along the main stem, with the
straight side forward and both ends pointed. The centre width would be from 20
ins. to 30 ins.
SMALL
MOTOR
The wings
would not beat straight up and down, but the course of an inclined and rather
flat figure eight; that is, a long stroke downward and forward, a turn upward,
a long rising backstroke, a turn upward, and then the long downward and forward
stroke again. The number required would be between 13 and 20 a second,
depending on weight and other circumstances but 20 is the maximum necessary and
a small motor is sufficient to produce this power. Prof. Magnan
has calculated that a man has sufficient physical energy to fly with wings on a
horizontal line, as he needs only one-eighth of a horse-power, which is what a
day labourer exerts in his work. But it will be far safer and more exhilarating
for him to use a small motor no bigger than his hat. Extra and revolving
propellers also could be attached like those of an auto-giro.
Watch
Jarno Smeets, a Dutch
mechanical engineer, take off and fly like a real bird just by flapping wings
of his own invention. Smeets took notes from the albatross and this
system allowed him to literally start flapping his arms to take off and keep
flying.
