A totally new type of aeroplane has been designed by M. Voisin for Mr Farman, the winner of the £2000 prize for a circular flight of one kilometre, and in March last was rapidly nearing completion.
The new aeroplane consists of a long spindle-shaped framework, measuring 46ft from head to tail, near the centre of which are placed the motor and driver.
Three pairs of wings - arranged side by side, and not above one another, as in the former machine - and measuring 20ft from tip to tip and 3ft in depth, are fixed above this frame in front of the driver. These planes are arranged in a descending position, so that the air, from which they gain their support, may have free access to all.
These are the main sustaining planes, but right in the rear are arranged two smaller pairs of wings - 15ft by 3ft - the rear pair of all being pivoted, so that they can be deflected upwards or downwards to regulate the course of the machine.
A rudder fixed to the tail of the main frame steers the aeroplane to left and right.
Both these steering devices are controlled by a single steering-wheel acting through levers and wires.
The screw in the new machine is placed in front, has a diameter of 8ft, and is driven at 1100 revolutions a minute by a 50-h.p., eight-cylinder, air-cooled motor, of a new type, weighing 315lb.
The aeroplane runs along the ground before rising into the air on three pneumatic-tyred wheels, the front pair of which are steered by the steering-wheel, which simultaneously works the rudder.
In its general lines the aeroplane recalls in a striking manner the appearance of a flying fish, and has been so named.
• Two girls, aged one year and two and a-half years respectively, were committed to the Caversham Industrial School by Mr C. C. Graham, S.M., at the Juvenile Court yesterday. The mother, a waitress, was said to be badly off, having been deserted by her husband.
She was ordered to pay 2s 6d towards the maintenance of each of her children, who are to be brought up in the Church of England religion. - ODT, 22.5.1908.
