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1907. June 13. Wednesday. at Baddeck [[strikethrough]]26[[/strikethrough]] 86

News Tribune Detroit
14 Apr 1907.

NEW STYLE AIRSHIP.
Something Different From Ordinary Flying Machines.

BALTIMORE. April 13. - Prof. Robert W. Wood, professor of experimental physics in the Johns Hopkins University, and his co-worker, Otto Luyties, have about completed preparatory experiments with their Helicopter flying machine, and the work of construction will now begin. The purpose of these experiments has been to test extensively the lifting power and the steadiness of action of screw propellors as the means of ascension and propulsion, and on the basis of the valuable results obtained by Prof. Wood a large flying machine will be constructed at Sparrow's Point under the direction of the two inventors.
The models which have thus far occupied the attention of Prof. Wood do not resemble the popular idea of the flying machine at all, and appear to be nothing but a set of electric fans with a few weights hooked to them. The models are, indeed, only a series of two, four and six-bladed screw propellers, supplied with motive power by a tiny motor and attached to an arrangement whereby the lifting power can be tested.

Standard Troy N.Y.
13 Apr 1907.

A SUCCESSFUL BALLOON VOYAGE
London, April 13. - For the first time an invasion of England by an airship from Germany was accomplished yesterday, when two German aeronauts, Dr. Yurt Wegener, a member of the German Aero club, and Herr Adolf Koch of Frankfort descended at Leicester, after having accomplished a voyage remarkable not ony as being the first of its kind but for speed as well.
Dr. Koch is a meteorologist in the service of the German government, and has made many ascents. This voyage was undertaken mainly for the purpose of making scientific operations. The start was made from Bitterfeld, near Berlin, at 8.15 Wednesday evening. The coast of England was reached at noon of the following day, so that, roughly speaking, the balloon covered in 16 hours what by ordinary methods of transportation would have required at least 20 hours to do. The 600 miles from Bitterfeld to Leicester was done in 20 hours.
"Our balloon is of the ordinary type, with a capacity of 1,400 cubic metres," Dr. Wegener said when he reached London yesterday. "It was inflated with hydrogen gas. When we first ascended the wind was east southeast. Later it changed to east. We maintained an elevation of 2,000 feet, though in crossing the Harz mountains we went higher. The balloon moved more swiftly nearer the earth."
"Passing over Holland we could make out the boats in the canals, and in some places we were observed and greeted with shouts. We reached the shore of the Zuyder Zee at 5.20 o'clock in the morning and crossed to Texal Island, which we left at 6.15 o'clock. When we started we had expected to come down in France, but when we reached the coast we knew there was no danger as long as the wind held its direction. We had no anchor, only a 100 metre guide rope.
"Weather had been fine during the night, but as we started seaward a heavy mist below us hid the sea from view. The first point on the English shore we made out must have been Cromer. Anyhow, we reached that part of the coast at 15 minutes past 12 o'clock and passed along the edge

Transcript Boston
13 Apr 1907.

TO TRY LANGLEY'S AIRSHIP
Manley Has Hopes of the "Buzzard"
Never Had a Fair Chance, Say Friends of Designer
Many Aeroplanes Exhibited in London
Baden-Powell Says That Aerial Navigation is Assured

Washington, April 13 - A great deal of interest has been aroused by the announcement that C. M. Manley, the engineer who did the mechanical designing of "The Buzzard," the late Prof. Langley's great airship, is expected to give the machine another trial. This announcement has been made in print as a recent utterance of Mr. Manley's, but as a matter of fact, it is declared, his purpose has been understood among scientific people for several months. At a meeting of the American Academy of Sciences last December there was a paper read by Alexander Graham Bell on his work up in Nova Scotia with the tetrahedral kite. It was a general contribution to the subject of aerial locomotion, as well. Mr. Manley was present at the meeting, and in the discussion that followed Dr. Bell's paper he said it was the general belief that the aerial experiments of the Smithsonian Institution had been dropped. This, he said, was not correct; that they had been merely suspended; and he hoped in the not very distant future to take out the airship and give it another trial.
The announcement attracted no attention at the time, but it finally reached a magazine, where Mr. Manley's words were quoted, and thence to the newspapers, where it was exploited as a move to take the airship out and give it a fresh trial. As a matter of fact, the friends of Professor Langley, including Professor Bell, who saw all of the important trials of the small model fliers and the big machine, say the big aerodrome has never yet been really tried. That is to say, it has never been turned loose in the air with a fair start.
On both occasions when an attempt was made to launch it some part of the machinery caught on the launching ways, it is declared, and the airship was upset before it ever got free and in the air. On the last occasion the obstruction consisted of two little pieces of triangular iron that had been overlooked in clearing the guides for the release. Professor Bell said in the paper referred to that the question of aerial navigation had advanced to a point where it was an assured fact and within a decade would be as common as automobiling.
The situation with the big airship in the Smithsonian is rather complicated. The War Department has some rights in it, having furnished the officers and had the supervision of some of the expenditures connected with it. The machine is the property of the Smithsonian Institution in point of possession and from the fact that it was made by Professor Langley, the former secretary. The Government, not being much in touch with the subject of aerial navigation, has little faith in the machine, it is stated, and it is regarded as a certainty that there will not be another dollar appropriated for experiments. Many scientists, on the other hand, are convinced that the machine is all right.
Mr. Manley, as stated, is the engineer who built the airship. When the subject of a lightweight engine was under discussion Professor Langley went personally to the most expert engine builders in this country and in Europe and tried to get an engine built on the general lines he had laid down. None of them would undertake the contract, and the result was that Mr. Manley, then a young man in Professor Langley's employ, did the work himself and produced a 52 horse-power engine at considerably less than five pounds weight per horse-power. Manley stipulated but one thing, and that was that he should have the honor of navigating the machine on her first trial. This was granted him, and now he wants to take another try at it.
"The situation is this," said Mr. Manley; "I am exceedingly busy, but at the first opportunity I shall resume that work. Sufficient funds have been assured for further work, and this time the machine will fly. The framework and other parts are intact, and the only work which will have to be done is to provide the aeroplane with new supporting surfaces. This will take very little time or money. The machine as it stands today can be made ready for flight in two or three days. It is the joint property of the War Department and the Smithsonian Institution, but the War Department has turned the full control of it over to the institute."

[[?]]ond on the flapping wing principle, and the third an aeroplane. Major Moore shows two of the flapping wing variety. The largest exhibit is that of A. V. Roe, who recently went over to Colorado to make experiments. Mr. Roe has five models on view, most of them aeroplanes, which he says propelled themselves more than one hundred and fifty feet. Mr. Roe told me he has almost finished a real flying machine. It is thirty-six feet long and weighs with the inventor 400 pounds. With an eight-horse power Jap engine he expects to attain twenty-five miles an hour.

Man Conquering the Air
Major Baden-Powell Says Flying Machines Have Come to Stay

Major B. F. S. Baden-Powell delivered an address last week to the members of the Royal Meteorological Society on "The Exploration of the Air," Three means were now at the service of man by which he might probe the mysteries of the skies - balloons, kites and flying machines. As to the balloon, it was now realized that this cumbrous and delicate apparatus was not capable of much practical application. Recently great strides had been made in the improvement of the balloon, so that it might be driven to any predetermined goal. Twenty-five years ago the French Government made the first dirigible airship, and now they possessed one, if not more, that seem to be really practical air vessels of war. Meteorological kites had also been much improved in recent years, and instruments lifted by kites retained by steel wires had actually ascended to a height of four miles, while at Aldershot kites had been regularly introduced into the military service. Men were first lifted by this means in 1895, in which year the lecturer himself made a number of ascents up to one hundred feet high, but improvements have gradually followed, until now men have actually gone up to a height of three thousand feet, an elevation practically beyond the reach of rifle bullets, and so high as to render the aeronaut almost invisible. The flying machine, said the lecturer, has come to stay. Huge machines were constructed with very light engines, and during the last two or three years not only had men been successfully raised off the ground, but they had been able to sustain themselves in the air for half an hour at a time. Very little remained to be done before it could be said that man had veritably conquered the air.

Professor Wood's Helicopter Airship
To Be Raised by Horizontally Placed Propellers

The preparatory experiments for the flying machine that is being built by Professor Robert W. Wood, professor of experimental physics in the Johns Hopkins University, with Otto Luyties, a Baltimore engineer, are practically completed and the work of construction will begin soon. Professor Wood has been carrying on these experiments in the Hopkins laboratory for several months. The purpose of the experiments has been to test the lifting power and the steadiness of action of screw propellers as the means of ascension and propulsion. On the basis of the results obtained by Professor Wood a large flying machine will be constructed at Sparrows Point under the direction of the two inventors. The type of machine upon which Professor Wood and Mr. Luytles are
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Transcription Notes:
The bottom right column of content (under "Professor Wood's Helicopter Airship") was not fully transcribed because the right half of the page is cut off.