Schemes for mechanical flight have been so generally associated in the past with other methods than those of science, that it is commonly supposed the long record of failures has left such practical demonstration of the futility of all such hopes for the future that no one of scientific training will be found to give them countenance. While recognizing that this view is a natural one, I have, however, during some years, devoted nearly all the time at my command for research, if not directly to this purpose, yet to one cognate to it, with a result which I feel ought now to be made public.

To prevent misapprehension, let me state at the outset that I do not undertake to explain any art of mechanical flight, but to demonstrate experimentally certain propositions in aerodynamics which prove that such flight under proper direction is practicable. This being understood, I may state that these researches have led to the result that mechanical sustentation of heavy bodies in the air, combined with very great speeds, is not only possible, but within the reach of mechanical means we actually possess, and that while these researches are, as I have said, not meant to demonstrate the art of guiding such heavy bodies in flight, they do show that we now have the power to sustain and propel them.

Further than this, these new experiments, (and theory also when reviewed in their light,) show that if in such aerial motion, there be given a plane...