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Barber, H. (Horatio), 1875-1964

"The Aeroplane Speaks"

Where's Efficiency?''
And she can only sadly reply, ``Yes, indeed, but
you see we're a Compromise.''
And the Drift has hopes of reaching the Maximum Angle
of Incidence and vanquishing the Thrust and the Lift. And
he grows very bold as he strangles the Thrust; but the situation
is saved by the Propeller, who is now bravely helicopting
skywards, somewhat to the chagrin of Efficiency.
``Much ado about nothing,'' quotes the Aeroplane
learnedly. ``Compromise or not, I'm climbing a thousand
feet a minute. Ask the Altimeter. He'll confirm it.''
And so indeed it was. The vacuum box of the Altimeter
was steadily expanding under the decreased pressure of
the rarefied air, and by means of its little levers and its
wonderful chain no larger than a hair it was moving the
needle round the gauge and indicating the ascent at the
rate of a thousand feet a minute.
And lo! the Aeroplane has almost reached the clouds!
But what's this? A sudden gust, and down sinks one wing
and up goes the other. ``Oh, my Horizontal Equivalent!''
despairingly call the Planes: ``it's eloping with the Lift,
and what in the name of Gravity will happen? Surely
there was enough scandal in the Factory without this, too!''
For the lift varies with the horizontal equivalent of the
planes, so that if the aeroplane tilts sideways beyond a certain
angle, the lift becomes less than the weight of the machine,
which must then fall. A fall in such a position is known as
a ``side-slip.


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