Weight of Aircraft

Extract

Major T. M. Barlow : All historical records of aviation from the earliest attempts at flight to our present-day Schneider Trophy and other record flights, show that in common with those nineteenth century experimenters our modern engine and aircraft designers are in one continuous struggle with the physical laws of weight. It is true that the early pioneers were faced with the problem of flying as such to the extent of carrying one man by a heavier than air machine a few hundred yards, but once this was achieved development quickly enlarged, the problem, and weight, with its relationship to power, lifting surface, safety factors, performance, range, and later—with the coming of civil transport—financial weight in the form of pay load, have become the all important item with the aeronautical engineer and constructor.