"Well, what of that" I replied. "Isn't it just barely possible that Norton is on the wrong track in applying the gyroscope to an aeroplane? I can't say I know much about either the gyroscope or the aeroplane, but from what I hear the fellows at the office say it would seem to me that the gyroscope is a pretty good thing to keep off an aeroplane, not to put on it."英文原著 · 《The Silent Bullet》
In 1914 Britain had in her Royal Naval Air Service 64 aeroplanes and 800 airmen. In 1917 she had many thousand aeroplanes and 42,000 airmen. In her Royal Flying Corps she had in 1914, 66 planes and 100 men; in 1917, several thousand planes and men by tens of thousands. In the first nine months of 1917 British airmen brought down 876 enemy machines and drove down 759 out of control. From July, 1917, to June, 1918, 4102 enemy machines were destroyed or brought down with a loss of 1213 machines.英文原著 · 《A Straight Deal》
Unfortunately, where aeroplanes designed for fighting are concerned, the altitude where most of the work is done is that at which both maximum velocity and maximum margin of lift for power are required. Perhaps some day a brilliant inventor will design an aeroplane of reasonable weight and drift of which it will be possible for the pilot to vary at will the above-mentioned opposing essentials. Then we shall get maximum velocity, or maximum margin of lift, for power as required. Until then the design of the aeroplane must remain a compromise between Velocity and Climb.英文原著 · 《The Aeroplane Speaks》
A high C.G. also tends to swing outward from the centre of the turn. It will tend to make the aeroplane bank the wrong way, and such effect must be remedied by means of the ailerons. The pleasantest machine from a banking point of view is one in which the C.G. is a little below the centre of drift. It tends to bank the aeroplane the right way for the turn, and the pilot can, if necessary, perfect the bank by means of the ailerons. The disposition of the keel-surface affects banking. It should be, in effect, evenly divided by the longitudinal axis.英文原著 · 《The Aeroplane Speaks》
As they spun down to the valley of the Dart, Mansus touched his arm. "Look at that," he said, and pointed to the blue heavens where, a mile above their heads, a white-winged aeroplane, looking no larger than a very distant dragon fly, shimmered in the sunlight. "By Jove!" said T. "What an excellent way for a man to escape!"
"It's about the only way," said Mansus. The significance of the aeroplane was borne in upon T. a few minutes later when he was held up by an armed guard. A glance at his card was enough to pass him. "What is the matter?" he asked.英文原著 · 《The Clue of the Twisted Candle》
We had likewise the aeroplane beetle. He was so big that he would have made good wing-shooting. His manner of flight was the straight-ahead, heap-of-buzz, plenty-busy, don't-stop-a-minute-or-you'll-come-down method of the aeroplane; and he made the same sort of a hum. His first-cousin, mechanically, was what we called the wind-up-the-watch insect. This specimen possessed a watch-an old-fashioned Waterbury, evidently-that he was continually winding. It must have been hard work for the poor chap, for it sounded like a very big watch.英文原著 · 《The Land of Footprints》