AIR-COOLED ENGINE-UITY

[Music] Air, earth, and skies, wrote William Wersworth. Thou hast great allies. Thy friends are exaltations, agonies, and love, and man's unconquerable mind. [Music] It is the mind of man, not wings, but his imagination that carries him aloft to frolic through the drifting meadows of the air. It is man's dreams and his inventiveness that release him from the shackles of the earth that give him wings and freedom. But as Esop the Fableist wrote, "It is not just fine feathers that make fine birds." [Music] The aircraft designer WS Evans considered the 40 horsepower air cooled engine in the family car and agreed with Sophocles that men often ignore the good that lies within their grasp. He took the small VW engine and designed a plane to fit around it. [Music] The aircraft designer believed that each man has an inalienable right to build an airplane in his own garage. And so with simple plans and light wooden construction, he made it possible for each man to do just that. Numberless are the wonders of the world, but none more wonderful than man. Sophocles wrote that around 400 BC. He had never seen such a plane. [Music] Simplicity is the key to this plane's success. The little rod bobbing before the pilot's eyes is simply the gasoline gauge. The aircraft gets about 30 m to the gallon. And when the rod stops bobbing, the wise aviator will look for a place to land. But what is there? Wrote Plenny the Elder in the days of Imperial Rome. What is there that does not appear marvelous when it comes to our attention for the first time? And how many things are looked upon as quite impossible until they are actually made to work. [Music] Enter this wild wood and view the haunts of nature. Thou wilt find nothing here of all that pain thee in the haunts of men and made thee loathe thy life. [Music] The American poet and essaist William Cullen Bryant never suffered a loathome urban traffic jam. But if he had, he would agree that it is not a bad idea to turn the family car into a buggy to get off the road into the quiet dells retiring far between with gentle invitation to explore their windings. [Music] The aircooled sportsman can enjoy a cruise across a lake in winter, speeding and skidding across the broad expanse of ice. Heroditus, the ancient Greek historian, said this. If a man insisted always on being serious and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it. [Music] Yield not thy neck to fortune's yoke, but let thy dauntless mind still ride in triumph over all mischants. Shakespeare. [Music] What might this be except a Venetian blind gone mad? It is an ACV, an air cushioned vehicle whose 40 horsepower air cooled engine now carries man to even more adventure. [Music] The air cushion vehicle carries man across the lakes and rivers, skimming swift and smooth across the water, traveling at 35 mph on a cushion made of air to places where a man can be alone. It carries 400 lb across land and swamp and open water. And yet beneath its strange exterior, there beats the same heart that moves the family car. You are doubly blessed, O fisherman, both for your gift and for your fish. Zenapon wrote that and it does not make any more sense in the original Greek. Is there no limit to the mind of man who can construct a vehicle that glides across the spray then scoots up onto land to blow the dust away? To paraphrase the American philosopher Al Jolson, you ain't seen nothing yet. [Music] Is it a bird or a plane? No, it is a whirly bug. The same small air cooled beetle engine now lifts man far above the den of traffic. All good ideas are quite simple and this one is not as complicated as it looks. [Music] The engine turns the propeller which moves the whirly bug forward. The rotor which gives it lift spins freely and has no motor of its own but draws its motion from the movement of the passing air. [Music] A simple throttle and a stick control the flight of the whirly bug and all its lifts and turns. [Music] [Applause] 40 air cooled horses travel somewhat slower than a speeding bullet, about as fast as a speeding beetle. And they do enable man to leap small buildings in a single bound. Once a loft, man is free and safe. It is unlikely that he will run out of gas. The whirlybug uses so little, but if he does, the rotor running free will lure him to a soft and gentle landing. Man with his mind and a small but mighty engine has found new ways to leave the crowded highways and the humdrum haunts of routine life. So come, my friends, it is not too late to seek a newer world. Push off and sitting well in order, smite the sounding furrows. For my purpose holds to sail beyond the sunset and the baths of all the western stars. Tennyson wrote that and he didn't even own a car. [Music]