To Make Monoplanes Safer.

New York Times 100 years ago today, October 27, 1912:
Roger Sommer Invests a Stabilizator to Prevent Overturns.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    PARIS, Oct. 20.— Important advance toward the safety of monoplanes is thought to have been made by the "stabilizator," just invented by Roger Sommer, the well-known aviator. As  a result of a series of experiments and observations, M. Sommer had come to the conclusion that the majority of accidents to this class of aeroplane were caused by the fact that when the head of the machine dipped below a certain angle the pilot found it impossible to right the apparatus, however much he worked the rudder, owing to the influence of the small plane fixed at the back of the machine and just in front of the rudder. The consequence was a headlong drop to the ground.
    To avoid this M. Sommer built a monoplane in which is a small back plane unfixed; it takes a slight downward angle at the same time the rudder is turned upward. In this way the plane no longer hampers the working of the rudder, but becomes a powerful medium for maintaining the stability of a monoplane.
    The movable plane is worked by the same lever that turns the rudder, and as soon as the machine is righted resumes its normal horizontal position and again takes up its function in supporting the back part of the monoplane on the air.
    Flights which have already been made with the new attachment have proved completely satisfactory. It is found that a machine can be dipped to an angle which, without a stabilizator, would probably prove fatal.