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In this article M. Isacco concludes his exposition of what he believes to be the underlying principles of flight by direct‐lift machines. He here surveys the types that have been built up to the present from the point of view of their stability characteristics. This involves a critical description of practically every helicopter built during the last thirty years. His paper therefore constitutes a history of all that has been done in this field of aeronautics in modern times

In recent years little has been published on the mathematical theory of vertical flight, though more intelligent work is being done on the subject by various engineers than, probably, at any previous time. In this and a following article, to be published next month, one of the leading exponents of the helicopter, in a specialised and highly ingenious form, covers the whole field of sustentation, ascent, descent and the thorny problem of stability more completely than has ever hitherto been attempted

ACCORDING to historical records the earliest known drawings for an aerial machine that can be classified under the heading of helicopter were made in the fifteenth century by the world renowned Italian scientist and artist Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519). Probably the Chinese had been making their helicopter toy for some considerable time before da Vinci commenced his experiments. This toy consisted of two feathers, joined together by means of a cork or soft wood boss, to form a crude type of propeller which was pushed up a threaded stick so that upon leaving the stick the propeller rotated at high speed and continued to screw itself up in the air. When the speed of rotation decreased the propeller slowly windmilled down to the ground. A similar toy is still being sold today.

In a supersonic aircraft, the combination of a fuse‐lage, and air‐consuming power‐plant in said fuselage, a wing‐structure comprising a wing on cither side of said fuselage each of which wings Has a root joining it to said fuselage, said wings each comprising an upper surface‐member to provide an upper defining surface and a lower surface‐member to provide a lower defining‐surface, said surfaces being joined together at a trailing edge common to both of them, and each of said surface‐members having a forward edge spaced from the other surface‐member over substantially the whole length of the edge, and an air‐passage in each of said wings extending from said forward edges to said power‐plant which air passages are of divergent cross‐section from said forward edges.

An aeroplane wing including a fixed forward portion, a flap, a slot controller between the forward portion and the flap, a spoiler on the slot controller, control means on the fixed wing portion and connected with the spoiler for operating the spoiler independently of the slot controller.

These details and drawings of patents granted in the United States are taken, by permission of the Department of Commerce, from the ‘Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office’. Printed copies of the full specification can be obtained, price 10 cents each, from the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. They are usually available for inspection at the British Patent Office, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, W.C.2.