greatest advantage from any original ideas he might have; he was
not able to make any trials with this machine, however, until
after witnessing Lilienthal's experiments and making several
glides in the biplane glider which Lilienthal constructed.


The wings of the 'Bat' formed a pronounced dihedral angle; the
tips being raised 4 feet above the body. The spars forming the
entering edges of the wings crossed each other in the centre and
were lashed to opposite sides of the triangle that served as a
mast for the stay-wires that guyed the wings. The four ribs of
each wing, enclosed in pockets in the fabric, radiated fanwise
from the centre, and were each stayed by three steel piano-wires
to the top of the triangular mast, and similarly to its base.
These ribs were bolted down to the triangle at their roots, and
could be easily folded back on to the body when the glider was
not in use. A small fixed vertical surface was carried in the
rear. The framework and ribs were made entirely of Riga pine;
the surface fabric was nainsook. The area of the machine was
150 square feet; its weight 45 lbs.; so that in flight, with
Pilcher's weight of 145 lbs. added, it carried one and a half
pounds to the square foot.

Pilcher's first glides, which he carried out on a grass hill on
the banks of the Clyde near Cardross, gave little result, owing
to the exaggerated dihedral angle of the wings, and the absence
of a horizontal tail. The 'Bat 'was consequently reconstructed
with a horizontal tail plane added to the vertical one, and with
the wings lowered so that the tips were only six inches above
the level of the body. The machine now gave far better results;