Publication 1622, 1903, The Berliner aeroplane

The text, from Scientific American 39:13, Sept 1903, p. 216, is scanned and digitized on Internet Archive. With thanks to them, here's the text:

Great attention has been given to the subject of mechanical flight by Washington [DC] scientists, notably Prof. Alexander Graham Bell and Mr. Emile Berliner, the well-known inventor. Mr. Berliner recently designed a small model of a flying machine which lifts, in flying, a weight of over one pound for every square foot of horizontal area at a speed estimated at less than 20 miles an hour.

The model is of aluminum and tin plate, with rods of oak and metal tubing for supports. It weighs about 34 pouns including ballast. The motive power for horizontal propulsion was supplied by two common skyrockets, attached to the rear of the machine, which is 7 feet long.

On August 19 [2003], it lifted itself from the ground and attained a height of 8 feet, maintaining itself for a distance of 40 feet at an almost even hieght of 3 1/2 feet from the ground. No launching device was employed, a push of the hand being given in starting.

The main body consists of arches opened below and sloping down in the rear, where wide tail ends are attached. The arches in moving forward tend to produce a current of compressed air, and at the same time exert a parachute action which helps to support the entire structure, but the main lifting is done by the inclined and spreading tail pieces catching the air current. Wheels are attached to the body to facilitate the attaining of initial speed on any fairly smooth surface, and they have now been mounted elastically in order to modify sudden shocks should the machine strke against a hard surface. The horizontal area of the machine is 30 square feet.

During the recent experiments the ballast was lifted to the rear of the machine. It then rose to a height of about 8 feet, after 40 feet travel, then turned backward, and was damaged coming down on the unprotected back.

The rapidly moving aeroplane is considered by scientists to be the proportion of the problem of mechanical flight, and the principal endeavor of experimenters in this line of work has been to provide a motive power which is both light and of sufficient propelling force to move a given weight of aeroplanes rapidly forward through the air.

The experiments of Mr. Berliner are not of recent origin. Eighteen years ago he constructed a full-sized model flying machine, which was not. successful, and nearly thirty years ago, in a communication to the Scientific American, he proposed the very principle of propulsion of flying machines, a stream of compressed air or gas, which he is using in his experiments.

Mr. Berliner is now engaged in the construction of a small improved model having a small car attached underneath, with which he intends to make elaborate experiments in order to arrive at more correct data: for. ascertaining the lifting power per square, foot of the horizontal area of his machine. The new model will be sufficiently large to serve as a basis for designing a machine capable of lifting, besides its own weight, a person and the motor for propelling, the machine at a possible rate of 20 to 30 miles an hour.

exampleTemplate:Pictures There are also nice pictures in the publication that we could upload here.

Sources

• Brockett 1910 entry: Berliner (The) aeroplane. Scient. Amer., Vol. 89, 1903, New York, p. 216. S (1622
• Thanks to Internet Archive and Scientific American 39:13, Sept 26, 1903, 89:13, p. 216

Original title	The Berliner aeroplane
Simple title	The Berliner aeroplane
Authors
Date	1903
Countries	US
Languages	en
Keywords	Emile Berliner
Journal	Scient. Amer.
Related to aircraft?	1
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Word count
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