Albatross-wise

A great white albatross soared round and round a South Atlantic ship. For days it followed, never lighting, snatching small fish from the waves, offal from the ship's wake. Sailors caught the albatross and aerodonetists studied its 17-ft. wingspread, its 4-ft., 25-lb. body. The albatross is the largest and strongest of seabirds, and scientists have tried to learn from it the method of its easy flight. At London last week Capt. Victor Dibovsky--43, aviator since 1908, inventor of gears to permit the firing of bullets through the revolving propellers of airplanes, winner of a British prize for inventiveness--declared that he had solved the problem. The secret lay in a depression of the albatross's back, a dip that allowed the bird to utilize the force of head-winds into which it might be flying. And he had designed, although he had not yet built, a machine for humans to fly albatross-wise. His machine was to have a wingspan of 25 ft., a tail of 12 ft., and a weight of 150 Ib. The man who would operate it, would lie prone. His feet would flap the contrivance's wings; his hands would steer it.

It is well known that a highly efficient airplane engine can lift only 50 Ibs. for every horsepower that it can generate. Figuring the average man to weigh 150 Ibs., he would need at least three horsepower to pull himself through the air, and he can produce only one-tenth of a horsepower himself. Ability to magnify that puny force by aeromechanics is Captain Dibovsky's claim.

Thus man's experimenting swerves back over old trails. More than 400 years ago Leonardo da Vinci, great artist, scientist, wished to fly. That seems to have been the one constant wish throughout his long & lively life--to fly. He knew of course nothing about modern motive power, although he did make some contraptions to operate by steam force. Therefore it was directly to birds that he turned discerning thoughts. He studied the mechanics of their flights, the comparative anatomy of their bodies. He built flying machines and, superb and practical engineer, he knew before he tried them that they would not work. Some secret of nature baffled him. Capt. Dibovsky, lesser Leonardo, is more confident, sure he knows his albatrosses.