Bellona Times
speaker
1,919 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Aug 2026
last heard 1 Aug
Bellona Times’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Flying with power-driven wings is likewise extremely problematical, as will be apparent when the weight that must be sustained in the air is taken into consideration.
the mechanism necessary to cause huge wings to beat in imitation of the bird would not only be weighty and complicated but likewise extremely inefficient as compared with the propeller driven soaring plane which in itself has a great deal of room for improvement
Yet the hope of eventually being able to fly with an ornithopter, as this type of machine is termed, is not yet dead.
A Californian, H. LaVie Twining, has carried out an unusually promising series of experiments on a small scale, employing man's power exerted through the medium of bicycle pedals and gearing.
It is very much to be feared, however, that like the hot-air engine and numerous other inventions that appeared to promise great results from the success achieved with a small model, the ornithopter would be about as cumbersome and hopeless as its name when attempted on a scale large enough to be of any practical use.
Helicopter
Just as there is a certain class that still looks to the ultimate development of the ornithopter, so is there likewise another class which does not appear to be influenced to any great extent by the fact that flight is an established fact.
This latter class pens its faith to the helicopter, which affords a still further example of how misleading may be the results obtained with a small model.
as related by the wright brothers in their experience with toy helicopters a helicopter consists essentially of a motor and a propeller the propeller being designed to rotate in a horizontal plane
and to carry the machine and the aviator aloft by reason of its downward thrust.
This is the simplest type of helicopter, next to the toy of the same name, but there are other types which differ only in the elaboration of their detail or in the combinations with other elements, such as planes, which tend to obscure their true character.
usually two propellers have been employed designed to turn in opposite directions in order that the tendency of one to rotate the whole machine with it could be offset by the other the fallacy of the helicopter seems very self-evident and yet large sums of money and no little inventive effort have been expended in attempting to evolve something practical out of the principle of sustentation
by means of the thrust of a horizontal propeller if the object of a flying machine were merely to shoot straight up into the air from the ground like a rocket it might be worth something to be able to start into the air without the necessity of running along the ground which is the chief advantage claimed by its advocates though but one helicopter has ever done so with an aviator
But the single reason for the existence of the airplane is the same as that of the locomotive, the steamship, the automobile, the bicycle, and the wagon transportation.
And the ability to ascend straight up into the air does not bring with it any capacity for traveling in a horizontal plane.
in addition to being unable to move except in a vertical plane the helicopter likewise has the somewhat serious disadvantage of being totally without any supporting surface in case of failure of the motive power
and even with the highly developed internal combustion motor of the present day it would indeed be a foolhardy aviator who would risk his life in a machine in which the failure of the power for even a moment meant certain death paul cornu a frenchman developed this type far beyond any of his contemporaries
and he is said to have actually succeeded in getting off the ground thus showing an advance in that highly important particular over other helicopter machines so far built this machine is likewise an improvement in design as the propellers are so mounted that they can be turned at an angle
as was the case with wellman's dirigible the idea being that once in the air at the desired height the thrust of the propellers or at least one of them could be exerted in a horizontal direction while the other served as a support thus providing for horizontal travel coming down from a height of nine thousand feet with a dead motor
as has been done in an aeroplane, would be a brief and exciting experience in a Cornu helicopter.
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