scipline, that is. Through
my little window I see most things, and don't I just know that poor
discipline always results in poor work in the air, and don't you forget
it."

"Discipline is it?" complains the Under-carriage, as its wheels roll
swiftly over the rather rough ground. "I'm bump getting it; and bump,
bump, all I want, bang, bump, rattle, too!" But, as the Lift increases
with the Speed, the complaints of the Under-carriage are stilled, and
then, the friendly Lift becoming greater than the Weight, the Aeroplane
swiftly and easily takes to the air.

Below is left the Earth with all its bumps and troubles. Up into the
clean clear Air moves with incredible speed and steadiness this triumph
of the Designer, the result of how much mental effort, imagination,
trials and errors, failures and successes, and many a life lost in high
endeavour.

Now is the mighty voice of the Engine heard as he turns the Propeller
nine hundred times a minute. Now does the Thrust fight the Drift for all
it's worth, and the Air Speed Indicator gasps with delight, "One hundred
miles an hour!"

And now does the burden of work fall upon the Lift and Drift Wires,
and they scream to the Turnbuckles whose business it is to hold them in
tension, "This is the limit! the Limit! THE LIMIT! Release us, if only
a quarter turn." But the Turnbuckles are locked too fast to turn their
eyes or utter a word. Only the Locking Wires thus: "Ha! ha! the Rigger
knew his job. He knew the trick, and there's no release here." For
an expert rigger will always use the locking wire in such a way as to
oppose the slightest tendency of the turnbuckle to unscrew. The other
kind of rigger will often use the wire in such a way as to allow the
turnbuckle, to the "eyes" of which the wires are attached, to unscrew a
quarter of a turn or more, with the result that the correct adjustment
of the wires may be lost; and upon their fine adjustment much depends.

And the Struts and the Spars groan in compression and pray to keep
straight, for once "out of truth" there is, in addition to possible
collapse, the certainty that in bending they will throw many wires out
of adjustment.

And the Fabric's quite mixed in its mind, and ejaculates, "Now, who
would have thought I got more Lift from the top of the Surface than its
bottom?" And then truculently to the Distance Pieces, which run from
rib to rib, "Just keep the Ribs from rolling, will you? or you'll see me
strip. I'm an Iris