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Saturday, the 26th of October, M. Henri Farman's new aeroplane, which we illustrated in the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN of that date, accomplished a record-breaking flight of 771 meters (2,529.52 feet) above the drill ground of Issy les Molineaux, near Paris. The flight was made in 53 seconds, or at an average speed of 32.54 miles an hour. Earlier in the day M. Farman made a flight of 363 meters (1,190.94 feet) in. 30 seconds, which was equivalent to a speed" of 27.06 miles per hour. The flight of nearly half a mile is by far the longest which has ever been made in Europe with an aeroplane, and it marks a long stride forward in the navigation of the air by a heavier-than-air machine, especially when the fact is borne in mind that it came as the culmination of a long series of flights made during a number of days without any accident or damage to the machine. On October 15, M. Farman flew 935 feet; on the. 25th, 984 feet, and on the 29th, the distances given above. When this machine is compared with that of the sculptor Delagrange, which earlier in the year made some short but successful flights of considerable promise, the Farman aeroplane is found to have a somewhat greater supporting surface (6971' square feet as against 645.84). Like the former machine, M. Far-man's consists of two long superposed surfaces 33.45 feet in length by 6.56 feet wide, followed, at a distance of about 15 feet, by two other superposed surfaces 19.68 feet long by 6.56 feet wide. The same type of doublil horizontal rudder is fitted at the front, and the forward pair of planes also carry the 50-horse-power motor and the 6.56-foot propeller, the pitch of which is 3.6 feet. The weight lifted per horse-power with this machine ranges from 22 to 25 pounds, supposing that the motor developed its full power. The probabilities are, however, that the lift per horse-power was somewhat greater. The amount lifted per square foot of supporting surface was about 1%, pounds, which is considerably less than most modern French aeroplanes are capable of lifting. Notwithstanding the large supporting surface, the speed of the machine was as great, and probably greater than that of any of its foreign predecessors. The fact that it exhibited good stability goes to show that this type of machine is one which apparently has a future.
