In designing this first aerodrome, here called No. 0, there was no precedent or example, and except for the purely theoretical conditions ascertained by the experiments described in “Aerodynamics,” everything was unknown. Next to nothing was known as to the size or form, as to the requisite strength, or as to the way of attaching the sustaining surfaces; almost nothing was known as to the weight permissible, and nothing as to the proper scale on which to build the aerodrome, even if the design had been obtained, while everything which related to the actual construction of boiler and engines working under such unprecedented conditions was yet to be determined by experiment. The scale of the actual construction was adopted under the belief that it must be large enough to carry certain automatic steering apparatus which I had designed, and which possessed considerable weight. I decided that a flying machine if not large enough to carry a manager, should in the absence of a human directing intelligence, have some sort of automatic substitute for it, and be large enough to have the means of maintaining a long and steady flight, during which the problems (which the rubber-driven models so imperfectly answered) could be effectually solved. When, in 1891, it was decided to attempt to build this steam aerodrome, the only engine that had been made up to that time with any claim to the lightness and power I was seeking, was the Stringfellow engine, exhibited at the Crystal Palace in London, in 1868, which it was then announced developed 1 horse-power [p031] for a total weight (boiler and engines) of 13 pounds. The original engine came into the possession of the Institution in 1889 as an historical curiosity, but on examination, it was at once evident that it never had developed, and never could develop the power that had been attributed to it, and probably not one-tenth so much. With the results obtained on the whirling-table at Allegheny as a basis, a theoretical computation of the weight which 1 horse-power would cause to soar showed that, with a plane whose efficiency should be equal to that of a 30×4.8 inch plane set at an angle of 5° and moving at a speed of 34 miles an hour, 1 horse-power would support 120 pounds.[19] With a smaller angle even better results could be obtained, but as the difficulties of guidance increase as the angle diminishes, I did not venture to aim at less than this. In this computation, no allowance was made for the fact that these results were obtained by a mechanism which ‹forcibly maintained› the supporting surface in the ideal condition of the best attainable angle of attack as if in perfect equilibrium, and above all in the equally ideal condition of perfectly horizontal flight.