Another invention to secure greater safety in the landing of aeroplanes was lately announced in Paris, following within a few hours the publications of details as to the new Handley-Page invention, which has a similar object. This device has been developed by Levasseur, the inventor of the once well-known Antoinette Mono-Plane, Robert Gastambide, and Mr. Latham, a cousin of the regretted Hubert Latham, and consists. of reducing the speed of the alighting aeroplane by varying the superficial area of the upper wing. Two sliding extensions of the wing are fitted, one in front and the other behind, so that when the pilot desires to reduce speed for landing they can be made to move outward in such a manner that the wing surface is increased from, say, 30 square metres to 50.
The speed, it is claimed, is reduced by this device from, say, 125 miles an hour to 38. Curiously enough, this is practically the same reduction as claimed for the new Handley-Page device, Trials of the new variable surface wings have been made at Etampes aerodrome by the French pilot Grandjean and are reported to have been regarded by experts present as in every way satisfactory. The machine is to make an effort very shortly to win the standing prize of 100,000 francs offered here for the best device to secure safety in flying.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.