Click on the pictures for information.
 Before Cody began experimenting with kites, Augustus Herring had successfully flown a man-supporting glider. On Oct. 11, 1899, he flew 50 feet aboard a glider with a compressed air engine in St. Joseph, Mich., according to Phil Scott's book on early aviation history, The Shoulders of Giants . Herring said he took an eight- to 10-second flight 10 days later, flying a total of 73 feet.
Herring's glider flight did not impress aeronautical professionals for a couple of reasons: he could not steer the machine and could not sustain the flight for very long. The three-horsepower compressed air engine Herring connected to the glider could operate for just 30 seconds at a time .
Herring's flight "wasn't significant," said Tom Crouch, senior curator of aeronautics at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
From http://www.eagletribune.com/news/stories/20030302/LN_012.htm
|
