Flying Machine

The apparatus invented by Hiram S. Maxim was a large aeroplane with connecting wings, 105 ft. wide, supporting a platform upon which the engine and boiler were placed, two screw propellers. 17+ ft. diameter, driving the apparatus through the air. The lifting power of the machine was 10,000 lbs. It was fitted with wheels between two railroad tracks, placed one above the other, so that it would have a rise of one inch in the air. In July, 1894, with two others, Maxim was carried 320 ft. on the horizontal. S. P. Langley's flying machine had an aluminium body, weighing 2 lbs., with a boiler and engine propelling two wooden screws. Four aeroplanes supported the apparatus. In Dec., 1894, the machine flew 900 ft. The sustaining power of aeroplanes has long been known; by them Guidotti claimed a flight of 1.320 ft. in 1569. See AIR SHIP and FLIGHT IN ANIMALS, POWER OF.