Abstract
THE aviation exhibition which is open until the end of February at the Science Museum, South Kensington, illustrates, in many cases by means of actual flying machines, the more important scientific principles underlying the practice of flying. Aviation is a new art, and it comes almost as a shock to a visitor to the exhibition to find that so long ago as 1844-5 a model of a flying machine was made by Henson, which, from the illustrations (Figs. 1 and 2) will be seen to bear a striking resemblance to recent monoplanes. For a moment at least a doubt arises as to the assumed progress of the science in recent years, especially when it is realised that one of the greatest difficulties confronting Henson and his co-pioneer, Stringfellow, was the provision of a powerful and sufficiently light engine. The doubt as to our present progress is removed on further inquiry, although we can quite realise that the science of aerodynamics has, for at least half a century, waited for the development of the light petrol engine.
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The Aviation Exhibits at the Science Museum, South Kensington 1 . Nature 90, 602–603 (1913). https://doi.org/10.1038/090602a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/090602a0