BUILDING LARGER,
LIGHTER BIPLANE.
KANSAS CITY INVENTOR'S MA-
CHINE TO CORRECT DEMON-
STRATED FAULTS OF OTHERS.
J. A. McCallum Expects to
Be Ready for Trial Flight
Within Two Months.
THE M'CALLUM STYLE OF AIRSHIP.
A flying machine that has a greater spread of wings, coupled with less weight than any other now in use has been constructed by J. A. McCallum, president of the Midland Electric Company, Gibraltar building. The machine has a thirty-two foot span, a five foot four-inch cord, or breadth, and tips the beam at precisely 550 pounds.
The big skeleton, for it has not yet been covered with the cloth, occupied the better part of a hall on the third floor. In appearance it is very much like the Curtiss plane now on exhibition at Overland park.
For as long as he can remember Mr. McCallum has been interested in the navigation of the air. When he was a little boy, which was not so many years ago -- he is now 31 -- he made many models of flying machines, some of them of the Darius Green kind, and calculated to break the neck of the adventurous aviator who tried them out.
CORRECTS WEAK POINTS.
The idea on which the present machine is built came to him after careful study of the Wright and Curtiss planes, six months ago. It seemed from the drafts of the successful flyers that there were many weak points in their construction, and McCallum set about improving them.
In the first place, he believed that the life of the army officer who was killed while testing a Wright would have been saved had the heavy motor been in front of the operator instead of just behind him. He reasoned that all the accidents so far had been with the machine hitting the ground head on and the engine piling on top of the person in the seat. Suppose, he said, that the engine was in front; why, then the operator could reach down and make his temporary repairs in case it stopped working. Sometimes the engine stops with nothing more the matter with it than a detached sparker, a defect that can be remedied by a turn of the wrist, and before the power is really shut down.
WILL WEIGH 550 POUNDS.
Another shortcoming he found in the foreign machines was the position of the weight of the man, the running gear and the engine above the center of gravity.
Place the operator, passengers, running gear and all beneath the wide spreading wings and in case of a catastrophe in the air the big bird would soar rather than tumble end over end to the ground.
"I will have my machine ready for a trial flight in a couple of months," Mr. McCallum said yesterday. "The engine is on the way here from London and the cloth covering, also an invention of my own, is ready. Perhaps I shall borrow a motor for a few days and make a flight in Overland park early in February.
"This bi-plane of mine is different from all others from the fact that it is intended to carry passengers. If it is a success, you can imagine how many passengers it will support. When I tell you that the Voisin plane of France weighs 1,312 pounds and carried three passengers while this one weighs, without sacrificing strength, only 550 pounds, and has a much greater spread."
LIKE AUTOS IN FIVE YEARS.
Mr. McCallum says that in five years flying machines will be as plentiful as automobiles in Kansas City. He believes a central spot in the downtown district will be reserved for a large shed to cover the machines of business men flying to and from their offices.
"A machine to thus become popular needs to be practical in the extreme," he went on. "It is needless to say that a flying machine which has to run at a rate of forty miles an hour in order to take wings is not practical. With my huge wings and light weight I am able to leave the ground at a speed of fifteen miles an hour, but, of course, this is entirely theoretical. No one can tell what a flying machine will do until after the trip. There is that inevitable chance that it won't work at all."
MAY NOT FLY ALONE.
"Will you make the first flight yourself and alone?" was asked.
J. A. McCALLUM.
"I may, but that is not necessary," was the reply. "Before making the maiden flight an expert aviator will examine the craft to see if it is airworthy, and if he declares it is, he will probably be as eager as myself to be in it at the start.
"The trouble with getting someone else to operate the machine is that it is so different from all the others in its leading principles. For instance, the manner in which balance is preserved by Curtiss and the Wrights is by several levers which tilt the wings. In my flyer we will accomplish the same result by merely shifting the weight of the engine, passengers and running gear, and there will be one lever to do everything."
Mr. McCallum has worked at the biplane constantly since he decided to build one six months ago. He has had several helpers at times, but usually he has worked alone. The finer plans, he says, have been worked out at night in the library of his home near Northern boulevard station on the Independence street car line.
