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s not, necessarily, have to be unlike the bird form, but we do know that the present structures have been made and insisted upon blindly, because of this wrong insistence on forms.
STUDY OF BIRD FLIGHT USELESS.--The study of the flight of birds has never been of any special value to the art. Volumes have been written on the subject. The Seventh Duke of Argyle, and later, Pettigrew, an Englishman, contributed a vast amount of written matter on the subject of bird flight, in which it was sought to show that soaring birds did not exert any power in flying.
Writers and experimenters do not agree on the question of the propulsive power, or on the form or shape of the wing which is most effective, or in the matter of the relation of surface to weight, nor do they agree in any particular as to the effect and action of matter in the soaring principle.
Only a small percentage of flying creatures use motionless wings as in soaring. By far, the greater majority use beating wings, a method of translation in air which has not met with success in any attempts on the part of the inventor.
Nevertheless, experimenting has proceeded on lines which seek to recognize nature's form only, while avoiding the best known and most persistent type.
SHAPE OF SUPPORTING SURFACES.--When we examine the prevailing type of supporting surfaces we cannot fail to be impressed with one feature, namely, the determination to insist on a broad spread of plane surface, in imitation of the bird with outstretched wings.
THE TROUBLE ARISING FROM OUTSTRETCHED WINGS.--This form of construction is what brings all the troubles in its train. The literature on aviation is full of arguments on this subject, all declaring that a wide spread is essential, because, --birds fly that way.
These assertions are made notwithstanding the fact that only a few years ago, in the great exhibit of aeroplanes in Paris, many unique forms of machines were shown, all of them capable of flying, as proven by numerous experiments, and
