The Rise of the Flying Machine. Hugo Byttebier

“He is so sensitive,” wrote Chanute to Means, “and has so many illusions as to the value of the device that the praise you unduly bestow on me and the hint that he might be left out might cause him to boil over.”

      On 20 October 1897 Chanute read an address at the Western Society of Engineers in which he described his gliding experiments of 1896, and at the end of the address he introduced Herring and asked him to describe the pictures taken during some private glides of Herring’s the previous month. Herring did this very ably and told the audience that his best attempt had lasted 48 seconds. The most interesting part of these gliding experiments of 1896 and 1897 was that they were never marred by any accident.

      In 1897 Herring claimed that he had covered 925 ft on a new triplane against a 48 mph wind in the “late fall” of 1896. But, apart from Herring’s statements, no other corroboration of that flight has been discovered.

      The fact that the biplane gliders continued to be referred to as “Chanute gliders” was not to Herring’s liking. He also objected to Chanute’s use of the photographs of the Arnot-Herring glider to illustrate several lectures he gave. The reason that Chanute used the 1897 photographs instead of the 1896 ones was because they were of much better quality than those taken the year before. As the two biplane gliders were very similar in all their particulars, Chanute could hardly be accused of bad faith in preferring the better pictures.

      Meanwhile, Herring, who was a very talented craftsman, had studied the question of power and had built a small two-cylinder motor driven by compressed air from a container filled at 600 lbs/sq in. by an outside compressor. He also applied for a patent under his name that was turned down by the Patent Office. In the May 1897 issue of Horseless Age Herring described the future flying machine as he saw it and concluded that “the time is near when power may be added”.

      With Arnot’s backing, Herring then built a new and bigger aeroplane based on the biplane glider of 1897 and powered by his compressed-air motor, which he thought capable of delivering between 3 and 4 hp for about 8 to 10 seconds. During the experiments with Chanute, calculations had been made that showed that horizontal flight could be achieved as soon as an engine of 5 hp was available.

      In the autumn of 1898 Herring’s powered biplane which he labelled “Experimental Flying Machine” was ready for tests. It weighed 88 lbs, and had wings of 162 sq ft surface. On 10 October a successful test was made; the plane covered 50 ft in the air against an estimated 25 mph headwind. The wind had been sufficiently strong to take care of take-off and the plane covered 50 ft of level travel when Herring raised his legs after taking a few steps. Thereupon Herring wired Chanute to come to St Joseph on the opposite shore of Lake Michigan to witness the next attempt. Chanute took the boat that same night, but when he arrived all efforts to fly failed because a borrowed stationary engine powering the compressor broke down and Herring could not pressurize the air tank. Herring’s bad luck remained true to form.

Chanute was disappointed and also disinclined to believe the story of the 50 ft flight made earlier that day, nor did he believe the story of another attempt made on 22 October in the presence of casual (not official) witnesses, when Herring supposedly covered 73 ft. These two flights may well have taken place, considering the aerodynamic factors involved and Herring’s undoubted capacity but Chanute — rightly — wrote to him later that “such performances must be repeated many times to be convincing”.6

      The next step for Herring to take was to study the internal combustion engine so that he could build a powered aeroplane with a gasoline engine. He had experimented with a two-cylinder gasoline engine in 1897, but could not obtain the power necessary for flight and by 1899 he had further built a single-cylinder 8 lbs steam engine. He was also busy with a series of gasoline-powered single and tandem bicycles (“Mobikes”), that he hoped would start Arnot and him in the motorized vehicle business. But he continued to be pursued by bad luck as he lost most of his engines and patterns when the Truscott Boat Mfg. Co. of St. Joseph, where his material was stored, was gutted by fire on 10 October 1899.

      His backer M. C. Arnot did not lose faith in Herring’s capability but he died on 31 July 1901 after an operation for appendicitis, and the money he had promised Herring from a life-insurance was not paid when it was ascertained that the policy had lapsed the day before Arnot passed away, leaving Herring with several accumulated partnership debts.

      This was another blow, but Herring’s courage, self-confidence and resilience never waned, not even after Chanute wrote to him (on 24 March 1901): “I scarcely think that what you have accomplished during the last three years would warrant me in setting your work above that of Tatin, Hargrave, Langley and others as you seem to desire.” Chanute had written this in reply to a “high-toned” letter he had received from Arnot, accusing him of ignoring Herring’s achievements in an article for the Encyclopaedia Britannica that was illustrated with photographs of the 1897 Herring-Arnot glider.

      In spite of all this Herring was able to continue his work on powered gliders whilst Chanute continued to lecture, counsel and write, as well as build gliders. Then, during 1902, both Chanute and Herring became involved with the work of one of the most formidable personalities in the whole history of aviation.

      5. Chanute, at the time when his book was being published, was busy with the application for a patent in Mouillard’s name which proposed a warping of the wing tips in order to provoke a powerful turning movement. The patent was applied for in 1892 and issued in May 1897. Chanute also sent Mouillard money for a glider to be built according to his ideas, but nothing came of it and Mouillard died on 20 September 1897.

      6. This is a statement that is still valid and should be taken to heart by all historians keen to make claims for alleged but unproved “first flights” that were never repeated nor officially witnessed.