JF Ptak Science Books Post 2823
Here's an interesting piece of reporting by (Professor) Raimund Nimfuhr (Czech, 1874-1954) on the Wright brothers gliding experiments in late September/October 1902. The two men transported their 1902 aircraft to Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk , N.C., and carried out between 700 and 1000 gliding tests, with great success. This story on their efforts appeared a few months later on 5 March 1903 in the Illustrirte Zeitung (Leipzig), with an unusual accompaniment of five photographs.
The Wright's received very circumspect coverage during this time, what with the certain level of disbelief that accompanied early reports on flight. As it turns out when the brothers made their great and historic powered flight a year and two months later the local papers near the Wright community in Ohio gave the achievement scant notice. The reverential Scientific American gave the Wright flight an inside notice—it wasn’t front cover material for them. (The papers were a little shorted though because the results of the experiment were leaked to the local Norfolk paper, and the rest of the world got scooped.)
In this short notice, “The latest advances in practical flying art”, Nimfuhr takes the first two paragraphs to review a bit of aviation history and to remark that “practical activity in flying has become increasingly common”, with a “feverish activity” particular to the “New World”. He states that the importance of Otto Lilienthal had not yet been recognized for what it was, with Europeans paying the price in wasted experimentation for not employing Lilienthal's results—this he states is not the case in the New World, which has made good use of the Lilienthal experimentation.
When he gets to the den Bruden Wright, Nimfuhr starts by saying that their 1902 glider was almost exactly like that of the second type of Octave Chanute, though he almost immediately states that the Wright machine was a “brand new, significantly improved machine”. He describes the wings and the method of controlling die gleilfluge, and then on th=o a description of some of he “700” flights they made, the longest being 189 metres (with time aloft at 26 seconds). Nimfuhr does take great care to describe the exacting control the Wrights had on the glider, which “promptly obeyed the slightest movement of the rudder”. He ends saying that the Wright glider is not the “ideal”, and that in order to fly several kilometers or into a headwind, an engine was necessary, though as things were in March 1903 the Wrights had made a “very significant advance”.
And another interesting but unrelated bit of aviation news on an invention from the author of the article above--an aircraft whose large wings would function like those of a bird or insect:
“ 'Plane to fly like a bird' is the caption of a story appearing in Engineer and Iron Trades Advertiser of Glasgow of April 19. According to the story the new pulsating wing of the Austrian scientist Professor Raimund Nimfuhr promises a vista so wonderful that our whole conception of the place of aircraft in the scheme of transport may have to be altered.”
“To come to details the Nimfuhr principle is to imitate mechanically the methods of nature in the wings of birds and insects. The Nimfuhr pulsating wing relies upon an extraordinary rapid vibrating or stroke action upon the cushion of compressed air which is formed in flight beneath a sustaining plane. The actual Nimfuhr wing as constructed for a full sized machine will it is understood be hollow with a flexible membrane on the under side. By pneumatic mechanism this membrane is set pulsating or vibrating with such rapidity that waves of atmospheric pressure are generated which it is intended will not only sustain but also propel the machine.”
“There is also a system whereby the extremities of the wings can be extended or contracted by pneumatic action to produce results such as are obtained by birds in stretching or folding their wings. Another feature is an automatic stabilizer in which disturbances of balance set in motion levers which counteract by their movement of the wings any tendency of the machine to lose its equilibrium. Even more significant it is pointed out is the interest financiers are taking in the promise the Nimfuhr method offers of so reducing the power necessary to drive aircraft that aerial transport can be made cheaper than earth transport.”
“If Professor Nimfuhr's claims are substantiated in large scale work it is calculated that a trans ocean craft built on this principle and carrying several people would be so economical in power that passengers could be carried by air between Europe and America cheaper than in a steamship.”-- Aerial Age 18 July 1921
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