Maxim, 1909, Artificial and Natural Flight
- Hiram Stevens Maxim. Artificial and Natural Flight. London & New York: Whittaker & Co., 1909.
Online at Internet Archive.
Deals with mechanical principles of flight in its various types. LTA, helicopter, airplane; also discusses gyroscopes.
Preface describes Maxim's personal history with aeronautics. Thanks Albert T. Thurston for reading proofs.
A big theme for Maxim is the inadequacy of theoretical data on flight, and the need for experimentation to create empirical models of how aircraft work.
For example:
In many of the treaties and books of that time it was stated that a screw propeller, working in the air, was exceedingly wasteful of energy on account of producing a fan-blower action. Some inventors suggested that the screw should work in a stationary cylinder, or, better still, that the whole screw should be encased in a rotating cylinder, to prevent this outward motion of the air. In order to ascertain what the actual facts were, I attached a large number of red silk threads to a brass wire, which I placed completely around my screw (see Fig. 13). Upon starting up I found that, instead of the air being blown out at the periphery of the screw, it was in reality sucked in, as will be seen in this illustration. I was rather surprised to see how sharp a line of demarkation there was between the air that was moving in the direction of the screw and the air that was moving in the opposite direction.
Maxim also tested a variety of materials for covering aeroplanes (see: texture), comparing their efficiency in lift to that obtained for a simple sheet of tin. (He found "linen very tightly drawn" and Spencer's balloon fabric to be the best.) (pp. 50–52)
Hints as to to the Building of Flying Machines
In Chapter VI Maxim lays out a design for an aeroplane using diagrams and terminology very similar to those found in patents.
He advocates for a big, long aircraft, big propellers, and a pneumatic apparatus attached to wheels as landing gear. He also has a schematic for a helicopter.
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