Excerpt from Theory of Aviation, Vol. 1: Instruction Paper Henson. That the results of his investigations were not entirely lost, however, is evident from Henson's machine of 1842, which was an even more astonishing anticipation of modern invention. Henson had not alone grasped the general principles but had also anticipated the actual construction of the aeroplanes that are performing such wonders in the air today. His machine was a monoplane and the wings with their ribbing and silk covering, stayed above and below to central posts placed in the main body, is almost identical with that of the French monoplane, the auxiliary trussing at the center of the planes constituting an arrangement employed on the Antoi nette. In addition to the main planes, there was a hinged rear tail, and a rudder for vertical and horizontal control, and there was like wise a three-wheel chassis on which the machine was designed to run when on the ground. As a parallel to the Wright starting rail, Henson proposed to employ an inclined plane, the run-down which would give the initial impulse necessary to launch the machine in the air. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.