A Project for Flying

Human flight depends on understanding birds, Robert Hardley argues in this 1871 pamphlet about aerial navigation. He describes experiments with barnyard fowls and a light apparatus driven chiefly by his feet, then proposes a training machine called the Instructor. Its long, balanced beam would support a learner wearing wings while a movable weight partly offsets the learner's weight. Hardley presents the device as a means of practising the movements he believes flight requires, and asks for financial support to continue his work.

The volume also includes technical remarks on an ellipsoidal balloon fitted with an Archimedean screw. Descriptions of its basket, spring mechanism and adjustable rudder show how propulsion and steering were being considered alongside flight inspired by birds. Readers interested in early aviation can compare these approaches and examine the mixture of mechanical detail, observation and personal conviction behind the proposals.