And from a poise at this station the plane may swoop down, at great disadvantage if close to the back of the wave, at various slopes and directions till it cuts into the air that is being raised by the face of the following wave, which again enables it to resume its velocity.

He accepted a place on the Ellesmere and circumnavigated Australia. Work on the rotary engine which powered many early aircraft up until about 1920. His development of the rotary engine was frustrated by the weight of materials and quality of machining available at the time and he was unable to get sufficient lift from his engines to build an independent flying machine.