The Romance of Aircraft

Seaplanes NC-1, NC-3 and NC-4 of the U. S. Navy starting the trans-Atlantic flight from Rockaway. The NC-4 on its victorious trans-Atlantic flight, sixty miles at sea Frontispiece

FACING PAGE Montgolfier experiment at Versailles, 1783 10 The first cross-channel trip 11 Diagram showing the main features of the spherical balloon 16 Cocking's parachute 30 A German Zeppelin 31 Inflating a service balloon on the field 40 Army balloon ready to ascend 41 Giffard's airship 54 Santos-Dumont rounding the Eiffel Tower 55 Baldwin U. S. "Dirigible No. 1" 66 The British Army "Baby" dirigible 67 Cross section of the gas bag of the Astra-Torres, showing method of car suspension 70 "The Blimp," C-1, the largest dirigible of the American Navy 72 The balloon of the U. S. S. Oklahoma 73 Diagram showing the essential parts of an airplane 95 Wright starting with passenger 98 An early Farman machine prior to start 99 Wright machine rising just after leaving the rail 114 An early Wright machine, showing its method of starting from a rail 114 The propeller department in one of the great Curtiss factories 115 A photograph of northern France taken at a height of three thousand feet 138 An airplane view of the city of Rheims, showing the cathedral 139 Diagram of an internal combustion engine cylinder, showing principle on which it works 157 This photograph shows the relative size of the giant Caproni bombing plane and the French baby Nieuport, used as a speed scout 170 The Spad, the pride of the French air fleet 171 A Handley-Page machine tuning up for a flight 182 The launching of a Langley, a giant bombing airplane 183 Side view of a Sopwith triplane 187 An American built Caproni airplane 188 This Curtiss triplane has a speed of one hundred and sixty miles an hour 189 A giant Gotha bombing plane brought down by the French 198 German Fokker plane captured by the French 199 Captain Eddie Rickenbacker 218 The first bag of mail carried by the U. S. Aero Mail Service 219 A photograph made ten thousand feet in the air, showing machines in "V" formation at bombing practise 242 A group of De Havilland planes at Bolling Field near Washington 243

PART I

THE ROMANCE OF AIRCRAFT

CHAPTER I

THE CONQUEST OF THE AIR

On a beautiful afternoon in the latter part of the eighteenth century--June 5, 1793--a distinguished company of Frenchmen were gathered in the public square of the little village of Annonay, not far from Lyons. They had come there by special invitation of the brothers Stephen and Joseph Montgolfier, respected owners of a paper manufactory in the little town. It was whispered that the brothers had a great surprise in store for them, a remarkable discovery. Yet all their curious gaze could make out was a great linen bag, that swung, like a huge limp sail, from a rope that was suspended between two high poles. By means of this seemingly helpless piece of fabric the brothers Montgolfier proposed to accomplish the conquest of the air.

Those who ventured near to this strange object perceived at its base a wide circular opening, sewed fast to a wooden ring. The ring hung directly over a deep pit, in which had been heaped fuel for a bonfire,--straw and wood and chopped wool. At a given signal one of the brothers applied a torch to the mass and in an instant the flames shot up. A dense column of smoke arose through the neck of the bag. The latter gradually began to fill, spreading out in all directions, until, before the astonished gaze of the spectators, it assumed the shape of an enormous ball, that overshadowed the square, and that pulled and wrestled feverishly at the restraining ropes.