THE MOST IMPORTANT "TOOL" IN THE BUILDING OF MODEL AEROPLANES.(Illustration by permission from Messrs. A. Gallenkamp & Co's. Chemical Catalogue.)
THE THEORY AND PRACTICE
OF
MODEL AEROPLANING
BY
V.E. JOHNSON, M.A.
AUTHOR OF
'THE BEST SHAPE FOR AN AIRSHIP,' 'SOARING FLIGHT,'
'HOW TO ADVANCE THE SCIENCE OF AERONAUTICS,'
'HOW TO BUILD A MODEL AEROPLANE,' ETC.
"Model Aeroplaning is an Art in itself"
London
E. & F.N. SPON, Ltd., 57 HAYMARKET
New York
SPON & CHAMBERLAIN, 123 LIBERTY STREET
1910
PREFACE
The object of this little book is not to describe how toconstruct some particular kind of aeroplane; this has beendone elsewhere: but to narrate in plain language thegeneral practice and principles of model aeroplaning.
There is a science of model aeroplaning—just as there isa science of model yachting and model steam and electrictraction, and an endeavour is made in the following pagesto do in some measure for model aeroplanes what hasalready been done for model yachts and locomotives. Toachieve the best results, theory and practice must go handin hand.
From a series of carefully conducted experiments empiricalformulæ can be obtained which, combined later withmathematical induction and deduction, may lead, not onlyto a more accurate and generalized law than that containedin the empirical formula, but to valuable deductions of atotally new type, embodying some general law hithertoquite unknown by experimentalists, which in its turn mayserve as a foundation or stepping stone for suggesting otherexperiments and empirical formulæ which may be of especialimportance, to be treated in their turn like their predecessor.By "especial importance," I mean not only to "model," but"Aeroplaning" generally.
As to the value of experiments on or with models withrespect to full-sized machines, fifteen years ago I held theopinion that they were a very doubtful factor. I have sinceconsiderably modified that view, and now consider that experimentswith models—if properly carried out, and given[vi]due, not undue, weight—both can and will be of as muchuse to the science of Aeronautics as they have already provedthemselves to be in that of marine engineering.
The subject of model propellers and motors has beensomewhat fully dealt with, as but little has been published(in book form, at any rate) on these all-important departments.On similar grounds the reasons why and how amodel aeroplane flies have been practically omitted, becausethese have been dealt with more or less in every book onheavier-than-air machines.
Great care has been exercised in the selection of matter,and in the various facts stated herein; in most cases I havepersonally verified them; great pains have also been exercisedto exclude not only misleading, but also doubtfulmatter. I have no personal axe to grind whatever, nor amI connected either directly or indirectly with any firm ofaeroplane builders, model or otherwise.
The statements contained in t