Sealing Problems of High Speed High Altitude Aircraft and Guided Missiles

ON December 20th, 1910, Mr. E. W. Dunne, the inventor of the arrow‐headed, tail‐less, twin screw biplane, made an experimental flight which deserves greater recognition than it has perhaps received. In order to demonstrate the inherent stability of the design, he flew a circuit at Eastchurch “hands‐off” while writing his observations of its behaviour. To do this he provided the controls with a set of locking levers designed to give a small number of set positions to correspond with turns, climbing, etc. The test was completely successful and Mr. Dunne returned safely to terra‐firma albeit this was the first time that he had turned this particular machine at any height !