KRONFELD ON GLIDING AND SOARING.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

FAMOUS CONTEMPORARIES 51
would never be necessary to seek such complicated
explanations.
Weiss did not stop short at his experiments with models.
He built man-carrying gliders, the first of which was
constructed in 1909. These machines differed from the
models only in size, and were similar in flying capacity.
The 1909 machine had what Weiss calls automatic stability ;
it was unbraced, and therefore a predecessor of many highgrade
modern machines. Even inexperienced pilots made
considerable flights in it.
At first a new starting arrangement was employed. The
take off was accomplished by the aid of two steel hawsers
which were laid in the direction of the wind each time, the
machine rolled downwards on a trolley, and its descent
was hastened by a drop weight which reacted upon a
starting rope. Later Weiss substituted steel rails for the
hawsers and made alterations to his catapult which enabled
it to be turned against the wind. His simplest and last
discovery was that if the machine was merely rolled on
wheels down a slope towards a sudden fall in the ground it
would be lifted by the wind when it reached the edge, if
its velocity was sufficient.
Unfortunately Weiss had to give up his experiments for
lack of money, but his experience was not lost. Mr.
Handley Page had always been especially interested in his
work, and built his first aeroplanes in 1911 and 1912 on
designs based on his deductions. Likewise, Weiss had
imitated Nature, deriving much assistance from Alexander
Keith, who was a student of birds and had an exact knowledge
of their anatomy. From what they had learned from
Nature they drew conclusions which led them to principles
of construction that could be applied to the building of
flying machines of any size, and they pointed out that such
planes would be found to possess a high degree of efficiency
which could only be properly appreciated when they were
in the air.
Have you ever seen a boomerang which, when skilfully
thrown so that it whirls in the air, climbs high and then
returns to its starting point ? Have you ever asked a learned
man to explain this phenomenon ? I do not believe that