Word: deperdussin
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Flying Squirrels Sirs: ''He [Earl Carroll] was the first man to land an airplane in Manhattan's Central Park" (TIME, Sept. 7). Early in the spring of 1914, I landed a Sloane-Deperdussin monoplane, 50 h.p. Gnome motor (some power fer them days, by gravy!) in the sheep meadow at 66th Street. Was arrested for something-possibly, publicity for the cop who arrested me- and discharged by Magistrate MacQuade next morning. The Aero Club of America suspended my license for six months. If I remember correctly, George Beatty landed a Model B Wright on this same field...
...little later came Glenn Curtiss with his method of pushing the aileran controls from side to side with the shoulders as an "instinctive" means of banking, and his wheel for steering. Bleriot used the Deperdussin method of operating the ailerons with a wheel mounted atop the elevator stick. Out of these and many more experiments came the singlestick control as it is almost universally used today...
...stick or "joystick" (named, by doubtful legend, after one Joyce) is a lever which the pilot moves fore & aft to nose the plane down or up; side to side to make the plane bank. All standard planes are operated by joystick, except transports and heavy cabin planes which have Deperdussin ("Dep"). (All planes are steered left & right by pedals.) In Washington last week the U. S. Court of Claims heard arguments of a Frenchman who alleges that every joystick built in the U. S. is an infringement on his patents...
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