The author argues that because of a general misunderstanding of the principles of flight at low speed, there are a large number of airplanes that could be made to fly several miles per hour slower than at present by making slight modifications. In order to show how greatly the wing section affects the minimum speed, curves are plotted against various loadings. The disposition of wings on the airplane slightly affects the lift coefficient, and a few such cases are discussed.

"It should be clear that in order to obtain a lift it is necessary that the air which flows past an aerofoil be given a downward acceleration; indeed the lift can be only the reaction produced by the downward acceleration of the flowing air. The motion of the air in the neighborhood of an aerofoil may be followed theoretically with great exactness. In the following, it will be undertaken to make understood, through the simplest possible considerations, the effect of span and loading on the air force on an aerofoil, and while these do not form a strong proof of the correctness of the formulae developed, yet they explain the essential features of the phenomena" (p. 1).

Much attention is given here to the design of the wind tunnel and the experimental set-up. In comparing their results on the wind resistance of spheres to the results of other researchers, the authors find wide discrepancies. They are unable to explain the cause of the discrepancies, concluding, as they do, that the differing results could not be explained by the action of the wind tunnel walls.

The aim was to bring attention to what might be the cause of some aircraft accidents for which there was no satisfactory explanation. The author notes that in testing aircraft accidents at the Bureau of Standards, it happened frequently that the engine performance became erratic when the temperature of the air entering the carburetor was between 0 C and 20 C. Investigation revealed the trouble to have been caused by the formation and collection of snow somewhere between the entrance to the carburetor and the manifold, probably at the throttle.