Around the World in Ten Days | Page 8

into the
air. For fully three minutes the propeller continued to whirl with
undiminished speed, then slowly it began to slow up, and finally
stopped.
Both Mr. Giddings and his son wiped their hot brows as they handed
the plane over to its makers.
"Whew!" said Bob, "that little mule has got a lot of pull to her."
"That she has," supplemented his father. "What sort of material is her
frame made of?"
"Balsa-wood," said John.
"I never heard of that. Is it something new?"
"Yes,--to the arts of civilization, but I presume it has been used by the
Indians of Ecuador, where it grows, for scores of years in the making of
rafts, for which it is particularly well adapted. The tree looks much like

our southern cottonwood, and the wood apparently has no grain. It has
a surprising toughness and strength, and is a trifle over half the weight
of cork, weighing only 7.8 pounds per cubic foot, while the same sized
piece of cork weighs 13.7 pounds."
"Has this wood ever been used in constructing full-sized airplanes?"
asked Mr. Giddings.
"I think not; but Paul and I believe it will be the coming wood for
them," said John with enthusiasm. "We have used it plain on this
machine. On a large airplane it ought to be reinforced with transverse
sections of very thin spruce laid latticewise. That would add
considerably to its natural strength, and increase the total weight very
little."
"H'm, h'm!" said the great newspaper publisher, "this is very interesting,
I am sure. Now let us see how this little affair behaves itself in the air."
Paul and his brother led the way out into one corner of the big field, so
as to bring what slight breeze might spring up into the head of the
airplane, explaining that machines without a pilot would keep a better
keel under such conditions. John then carefully attached the
bicycle-pump and recharged the air-tank, following which he took out
his watch to time the flight. Mr. Giddings and Bob also took out their
watches.
Paul set the little Sky-Bird down on the hard earth, in a spot where
there was no grass or other obstacle, and with his finger on the
air-valve, said: "Practically all rubber-band motors require starting the
model airplane off by picking it up and tossing it away from you up
into the air; but I think this machine will rise from the ground like a
large plane, on account of its great lightness and unusual power. We
will now see if I am right."
To tell the truth, this being the first time he had really tried the
Sky-Bird in a flight, Paul was nervous as he turned the valve, removed
his hands from the graceful little plane, and straightened up.

With a whirr like the wings of a partridge as it is flushed out of the
grass by the huntsman's dog, the small machine shot forward a few feet
over the smooth ground, then gracefully arose in the air and started
away toward the opposite corner of the field. As it proceeded it
continued to rise, until it reached a height of possibly ninety or a
hundred feet, when it began to dip unsteadily.
"It's a gust of wind striking it," remarked John uneasily. "I hope she
weathers it. If there was only a pilot in her now, he could----"
But even as he spoke the Sky-Bird seemed to recover her balance.
Making a pretty circle, away she sped on her course, neither rising nor
falling. Like a real bird she sailed onward, the noise of her whirring
propeller now lost to her fliers, but her little pale-yellow silk wings
against the blue sky plainly tracing her course for them. Paul was
running after her now as fast as his legs could carry him. What if she
should keep right on and go over the far fence?--he might lose the little
darling!
That fence was a good half-mile away. For his pet to cover such a
distance had not seemed within the bounds of probability to either
himself or John at the start, for all of their great confidence in the flying
powers of the new model. Now, as he kept on running and the Sky-Bird
continued going with no sign of dropping, Paul really became alarmed
for her safety in landing.
But just before it reached the boundary of the grounds, the youth saw
that the airplane was slowly settling. Into the next field it flew, and the
high board fence shut it from Paul's view as he came up to it. With a
jump he caught the top boards, and scrambled up, springing down on
the opposite side. It was to see his little machine just miss the branches
of an oak tree