But he wanted to master all
the principles of aviation. As student mechanician he had seen airplanes
built. He intended to make himself veritably part of the machine which
should be intrusted to him. Each of his senses was to receive the
education which, little by little, would make it an instrument capable
of registering facts and effecting security. His eyes--those piercing
eyes which were to excel in raking the heavens and perceiving the first
trace of an enemy at incalculable distances--though they could only
register his motion in relation to the earth and not the air, could, at
all events, inform him of the slightest deviations from the horizontal
in the three dimensions: namely, straightness of direction, lateral and
longitudinal horizontality, and accurately appreciate angular
variations. When the motor slowed up or stopped, his ear would interpret
the sound made by the wind on the piano wires, the tension wires, the
struts and canvas; while his touch, still more sure, would know by the
degree of resistance of the controlling elements the speed action of the
machine, and his skillful hands would prepare the work of death.
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