The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, December 10, 1928, Page 8

MUTANT as On December i 7. 1903. Looe _ a The Wright Brothers Ve Conquered the Air . . This Is the Story Of Aviation’s Birth By EDWIN E. SLOSSON ‘O man in all the his- tory of the world has had such an experience as Or- A ae OEE can look up almost any time and see men flying above his Dayton home and be reminded that he was the first of all mor- ‘ tal men to soar into the air, 25 i! years ago. ‘ \ No discoverer or inventor This original airplane of the Wright brothers—which is really only a motored glider has seen so radical a revolution « ts on exhibition at South Kensington, London. of the world in such a short ; Orville Wright. time. Not Columbus, for he vi < Because of died before he knew that he him and his had found a new continent. Not brother, “all Watts. for the steam engine did God's chillun’s not fully reveal its power in his got wings.” lifetime. Bell, when he heard telephones on every hand, and Edison, when he could see the Eat lit by his electric oe could come nearest to realizing The amazing evo- we the transformation of daily life lution oh the stories about machines that flew. i . z effected by their inventions. But Wright brothers Even as late as 1908, as Mark Sullivan tells us, the Cleveland Leader refused to pay « telegraph tolls on a dispatch telling of the amazing flights at Kitty Hawk and the edi- ! tor sent back ‘a sharp message to “cut out \ the wildcat stuff.” ' z During the five years when the Wrights were perfecting their airplane and practicing the art of aviation hundreds of persons had seen them in the air about Dayton or Kitty Hawk at one these were developed gradually under normal conditions as fast as a market could be ‘open for them, while aviation was forced into premature maturity by the World War, which compelled all nations to engage in the ad- vancement of its actual applica- Alying ‘machine ... a modern Wright- Bellanca passenger plane. work, and confidence in our system of control developed by three years of actual experience in balancing glider tion regardless of expense and in the air convinced us that th: time or another, yet on the whole America and France declined danger. : machine was capable of lifting ancl to believe that flying was an accomplished fact. : ’ The conquest of the air, The maintaining itself in the air, and that, The Wrights did not attempt to conceal their experiments, completely accomplished with- late Wilbur with a little practice, it could be safe- but they avoided publicity and refused, on account of pending in the present century, fulfilled one of the dearest desires of the human heart from the earliest ages. “Birds can fly so why can't Wright... . On his turn in the crude contraption, he stayed tn the air 59 seconds, covercd 852 feet. patents, to give out detailed descriptions or allow their airplanes photographed closely for nearly five years. : But by 1908 they were ready for a public demonstration of what they had been doing and this was made in a way to con- vinee the most skeptical on both sides of the Atlantic simul- ly flown.” Thus does one of the two pio- te neers of aviation describe the first real io ever made: “Wilbur, having used his turn 12” This mental query which in the unsuccessful attempt on the taneously. For this purpose the two brothers, hitherto insepar- a @ 4 led Darius Green to launch bis stirs I4th, the tight to the firt trial able, parted company. And in September, 1908, Orville flying mean Ga pae et ped are nelson of sa now bel to me. After run- Wright at Fort Myer, Va., met the vigorous requirements of ventive minds in all periods and places. eve eee ning the motor a few minutes to the U. S. Army Signal Corps, and Wilbur Wright at Le Egypt and Assyria are carved with the figures of winged men. Mankind had always longed for wings, dreamed of them, prayed for them, hoped to be good enough to go to heaten where “‘all God's chillun’s got wings.” This suppressed desire, dating back to the childhood of the race, was first realized on earth at Kill Devil Hill, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903, when Orville Wright | flew 120 feet in 12 seconds. OW Orville and Wilbur Wright, the young bicycle makers of Dayton, got interested in aviation and how they began their experiments may be best read in the words of the elder brother in the first account given of their Mans, France, won the Michelin prize of $4000 and a trophy valued at $2500. g , The army specifications for a heavier-than-air machine were that it must be capable of remaining in the air for one hour, of making 36 miles an hour against and with the wind, and of carrying a passenger and fuel for 125 miles. f On September 12 Orville Wright made a record flight of one hour and 14 1-3 minutes. A speed of 40 miles an hour was made and passengers carried on several flights. But on September 17 a breaking propeller blade threw the machine to the ground, causing the death of Lieutenant Selfridge and serious injury to Mr. Wright. This was the first airplane heat it up, I released the wire that held the machine to the track, and the machine started forward into the wind. Wilbur ran at the side of the machine, holding the wing to balance it on the track. Unlike the start on the 14th, made in a calm, the ma- chine, facing a 27-mile wind, started very slowly. Wilbur was able to stay with it till it lifted from the track after a 40-foot run... . “This flight lasted only 12 sec- Orville Wright’s his toric flight of one hour and 14 minutes . . . was the big news on Sept. 12, 1908. onds, but it was nevertheless the first it by any government in the world. 1 t they always faced the wind. Then he made of willow work and cotton cloth a pair of wings and a tail like those of a stork, and built up a 50-foot mound to jump off from since hills were scarce in his Pomeranian plains. Island rdless of the growi tienc ‘increduli the cay Is on the banks of the Hien Then: late in gt Fi 1 fell, he ' Nas ety and nas A that many of them failed to tes bie AOS SAAT AP ae making my first flight on a strange machine in a 27-mile wind. even if I knew that the machine had already been flown and was safe. After these years of experience I look with amaze- Such flights were unprecedented anywhere in the world, but ment upon our audacity in attempting flights with a new and they aroused little interest in the farmers who watched them Wright completed a circular flight. In 1905 were able to Woke comand 0 cones Tio 1 hou: : The two brothers, so commen. in disposition and comple- eal He practiced with gliders until he could fly sometimes 300 untried machine under such stances. Yet faith i from the fields about Dayton or the who in talents, formed fi i is rise higher than After learning the art of calculations and the design of hs bea atic: based oe _ ae ‘ e aan Toll 2 the by abe In 19 2 this hase pega te Dh od pus be 3 invited to witness them. tables of air pressures, secured by months of careful laboratory alarms, had become (Copyright, 1928, NEA Magazine an@ Science Service) were scary of any first flights with gliders, the epoch-making paper read by Wilbur tote he could t sai 5 é 5 2 4 é , a ‘ ry this his experiments were terminated by a in the history of the world in which a machine carrying a mag In France Wilbur Wright on September 21 made a con- Ta balets Genter esemns Engi Septenber 18, fall from the height of a hundred feet in a high wind. ; had raised itself by at own boneaist iat Cae air Pr a fe. tiawpat fish a ons hott Fie 3l aes fe believe the cod a “My own active interest in aeronautical problems dates back The Wright boys, who were running a bicycle factary in had sailed forward without reduction of speed, an ally of the year had exte as Sansone; Ham to, ors a to the death of Lilienthal in 1896. The brief notice of his Dayton, Ohio, sent to the Smithsonian Institution for the reports landed at a point as high as that from w! - covered a distance of more than 90 miles. , death which appeared in the telegraphic news at that time of the experiments in mechanical flight that were being made by __ it started. ‘ Wilbu The genet areraspe capittaind by his success ma aroused a passive interest which had existed from my childhood __ its secretary, Samuel P. Langley, and for such other literature ‘At twenty minutes after eleven Wilbur that a syndicate purchased the patent rights 4 # i second fi f nd engaged him P and led me to take down from the shelves of our home library _ 8 they could get on aeronautics. started on the ch Tee tha tthe fi . anc ienen bosFratn.amiators.at:tatl, a book on Animal Mechanism, by Professor Marey. which | Getting more enthusiastic on the possibilities as they found this ay ing | d : # povoed EW YORKERS had their first ch: had already read several times. (pe this | was led to read out, more about the subject, they built a glider in 1900 and “ery ‘much up a ater speed ees > bac their Brat chance more modern works, and as my brother soon became equally looked about for a locality where the wind blew and hills gave ted fi was ponent yest wind at to become. convinced with their own interested with myself we soon passed from the reading to the a jumping off place. On advice from the Weather Bureau they _‘he first flight, due to Wa ago eres toa on} was a possibility dur- thinking, and finally to the working stage. selected the. coast of North Carolina at Kitty Hawk. duration of the flight was less, than a. seco ing the Hudson-Fulton celebration. when “Tt seemed to us that the main reason why the problem had For two seasons they tried out their gliders on the sand dunes, longer than the first, but the distance covered Wilbur Wright flew from Governor's Island remained so long unsolved was that no one had been able to constantly gaining skill in the art of flying but without solving W@#,2bout 75 feet greater. third flight | Ollo Lilienthal glidit He 10, Grant's Tomb and back, | This made the & obtain any adequate practice. We figured that Lilienthal in the secret of proper balance. ° ‘Twenty minutes later the third ig t Nt + reed hel sliding. ...He Hudson the scene of three epoch- : five years of time had spent only about five hours in actual Realizing then that the tables on which they had relied were ‘tated. This one was steadier than the first mig n the frst to fly. events in the history of transportation. gliding thyough the air. The wonder was not that he had done = wrong. they made a wind tunnel in their shop duri i one an hour before. I was proceeding along hed he lived. Half-Moon™ sailed up the river in 1609; ‘ ; ing. the waite Il when a sudd from the the "Clermont" it in 1807, so little, but that he had accomplished so much. It would not of 1901-02 and figured new measurements for the balance and prety ed th en hi jing a mS f e | Clermont” steai up it in and ; 3 be considered at all safe for a bicycle rider to attempt to ride proportion of the plane with the aid of their schoolma’am sister, oa if a i gi pode erp ihe 2 feet It beg Onspet: Psat vay airplane Wan up it in 1909. % i), = through a crowded city street after only five hours’ practice, wow Mrs. Katherine Wright Haskell of Kansas City. ane furnen. Ht Ub scenic 2n.Ae ee ee gh ae nial » Alexander Graham Bell wrote to @ spread out in bits of ten seconds each over a period of five The Wright brothers completed their motored glider—the ley nel of pie ae a fib ihe Galego - reroaty Saleat al the Seeivemina retin The int = years; yet Lilienthal with this brief practice was remarkably first real airplane—in their bicycle shop at Dayton in September. peal ae Wen cen ns besser ickl; cae te. Am i) qo vii oe fe pore pe pa dn eane Ms successful in meeting the fluctuations and eddies of wind gusts. 1903, and, by the time they got it set up at Kity Hawk. thei Rr te a ee ae peri-ado_aeyineg tos. them if ect the: Seeith, Ps one sheet ue if some meth could be found by which — was time for only one day's trial. But Nhat was enough. ay cae dnteral conteal pit spore fective the | bad smaained a _ aia Se ik Hancer sath is Seceane area b 3 it woul possible to practic i al rt round ht w is in je Smit! jan tion estal = = ead of by the pee) ee well tbe oe. Decree (Ue eet at ae se the left and struck first. time of this ight was 15 seconds Langley medal and awarded it for the first time to Wilbur and = : hope of advancing the solution of very machine. ‘There were five witnesses and a ‘Hfd,(be distance over the ground a little aver: 200 feet, Orville Wright “for advancing the science of aerodromics in the = = fe sustained at a speed of 18 miles per “ chen nearly four years before this feat’ by the, time 300 feet had been covered. the The Wright brothers leaped from obscurity to world-wide Ns our, and then finding a locality where was equalled by anyone else, even in ' Was under m control. course for the next four fame by their demonstration in France and America, 20 years s winds of this velocity were common. Diagram of the fost Wright biptane. France, where interest in aviation was most °F five hundred feet had but little undulation. However, when ago, that man could rise from the ground and move through :: = ‘A, main planes: B. elevator: active. Santos Dumont, on November 12, oUt, about 800 feet the machine pitching again, the air on motor-driven wings. ree . = T was then a failure and a fatal accident = C_ ryudder- Fa i? : : ' f sn 2] and, in one of its darts downward, struck round. The dis- : ‘ in thei tm Fd then J C, rudder; D, motor; E, propellers; 1906, made a flight of 238 yards in 21 2 th si ol found be 852 feet: The secret of the success of the Wright brothers lay in their - Set 4 lean + pilot's lever; G, landing skids. seconds, Henry Farman on October 26, a . ” f peculiar combination of venturesomeness caution. y = = that inspired the Wright brothers to —F, pilot's I G. landing skid ds, Hi ber 26, tance over the gro a mane to leet i bit rf i The: % cotet_ aviation. aod 29 achieve the 1907, temained in the alr 56 seconds and __ the time of the flight 59 seconds. were willing to ria thei own lives day after dey in trying out : umph. For reading of the death of ien- ile. t that time Z i R tro] ie ‘icious ail 4 ‘opposed >: = thal in 1896 papers incited them to take up the tasR left un- the Wrights were doing 25 miles Fi a flight, eee a Ta Wright brothers were a0, selaiuied Ape the eatin of stunt Aying tz ee ies re! mele ie allow they they Bs : = finished by his death. : Been ‘ flying that they neglected their business and sold their Iowa _ trained to risk spectacular feats such as ing the loop. The : = Like Lilienthal, the Dayton brothers tackled the problem from N higtoric event like this should be given wherever possible farm in order to spend their summers in trying out and — French at first were inclined to sneer at Wilbur Wright because : = what we all can now see was the right end. They determined /X im che words of a first-hand authority, so here it is best smashing \p machiers and their winters in trying to figure out he would not attempt flying unless his machine and the ‘weather = = to learn to fly before they made their flying machine. Most "to quote the description of the first Aight as reported by why they did not work and in i" ones. : were just right to suit him, and then he went no further than the £ = taped had adopted the opposite procedure and assumed that Orville Wright in “Flying,” December, 1913: Meanwhile they were gaining confidence and competency in re to meet the conditions of the competition. At = ey must perfect their machine before they got into it. “With all the knowledge and skill acquired in thousands of the art of aviation. They set up a shed in a field eight miles Hudson-Fulton celebration he waited pati at Governor's 3 = Otto pareinal watched the young storks learning to Ay and flights in the last ten years, | would hardly think today of cut of Dayton here on mber 20, 1904, Wilbur ing impati = noticed 2 = ~ 2 = =. yi fiying by such practice the next step was to attach a motor, but AUTRE AAA TT . na a A CTT TTC | tu CTT CO Sag is MMM TT |: