Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-25
FLIGHT THROUGH AIR
Aerial Navigation Believed to
Have Been Assured.
THE LATEST ACHIEVEMENT
Machine Flies Twenty Five Miles in
Thirty-Eight Minutes.
OFFER OF FRENCH GOVERNMENT
Will Pay Big Sum for Airship Making
Record Of Forty Miles in
One Hour.
THE LATEST ACHIEVEMENT
OFFER OF FRENCH GOVERNMENT


| 1t looks at last as. though the conquest OF
the air were pretty wen under way. The
| Aero Club of New York has received a
communication from the Wright brothers
of Dayton. Ohio. telling what they have
accomplished with their latest, flying ma
chine. and their statement seems to put the
question Of aerial fight quite within the
realm of practicable things.
The Wright brothers. it may be stated,
are not noxices with machine they want
| to float a patent for. but, while not gener-
ally known to fame. they are known to
| limited circle of scientific workers as two
| people who have done more for prac teal
hight than any other several men In the
| United States
| They state that they have machine that
weighs over 800 pounds with the operator
aboard and that 1t has made flights of
thlrty-eight minutes duration; in which
| time 1t has covered twenty-five miles, This
| they declare has been done in the presence
| OF few select witnesses, one OF whom Is
| Washington man. When he .WriEhy broth
| ers say they have done this thing the scfen-
| tifc public it is claimed, will ponae pretty
| near accepting their assertion.
| What Is more to the point, the French
| government has started a commission TO
| this country to watch the performance of
! the machine, and has contracted, at price
| stated to be 100000, to take the first ma
| chine that makes record of forty miles
| an hour In sustained flight Of one hour
| This record has not yet been reached. but
| the designers Of the machine say that they
\ are confident it can be easily attained, as
| the last fight made would have reached
| that limit but for the failure to take enough
| gasoline fuel aboard for the motor.
Statement Of the Inventors.
| he official statement of the inventors to
the Aero Club Is perhaps the best EXPOSE
ton of what has been done. 1t has. recently
been sent TO the club and is as follows:
| Though America. through the labors of
| Prof. Langley. Mr.. Chanute and others, had
| acquired not less than ten years ago the
| recognized leadership in that branch of
aeronautics which pertains to oirdltke
| flight, 1t has not heretofore been possible
| for American workers to present a sum-
mary of each years experiments to So
| city Of their own country devoted exclu-
| sively to the promotion Of aeronautical
| studies and sports. 1t Is with great pleas
| ure, therefore, that we now find ourselves
able to make a report to such society.
| Previous to the year 1905 we had ex-
perimented at Kitty Hawk N c., with
| man-carrying gliding machines in the years
1900, 1901. 1902 and 1903; and with a
man-carrying motor flyer. which, on the
| 18th day of December. 1908, sustained it
| self in the air for fifty-nine seconds, during
| which time 1t advanced against twenty
mile. wind distance of So feet Flights
i
been made at Dayton. Ohio, in 1904, with
| a second motor flyer. OF these flights,
| complete circle, made fer the first time on
| the Goth of September, and two flights OF
three miles each;e made on the 9th of No
vember and the LIST Of December, re-
| spectively, were the more notable perform
| ances
! to determine the cause and discover rene
| dies for several obscure and somewhat rare
difficulties which had been encountered In
| Of ia lights which
| necessary to overcome before 1t would be
! safe to employ flyers for practical purposes.
| The experiments were made In q swampy
meadow about eight miles east of Dayton,
Ohio and continued from June until the
| early days of October, when the impossf-
biIity of longer maintaining privacy neces-
| STATED their discontinuance.
Earlier Flights Were Short.
ut will be seen that an average speed of a
| little more than thirty-eight miles an hour
| was maintained in the last flight. All of the
| flights were made over a circular course of
| about three ourths Of a mile to the lap.
| which reduced the speed somewhat. The ma
chine increased it's velocity on the straight
| parts of the course and slowed down on
the curves 1t is believed that in straight
| fight the normal speed is more than forty
miles an hour In the earlier of the flights
named above less than six pounds OF gaso-
/ line was carried. In the later ones a tank
was fitted large enough to hold fuel for an
| hour, but by oversight 1t was not complete
| ly filled before the fight of October 8.
| TN the past three years a total of 160
| flights have been made with our motor
| driven flyers, and a total distance Of almost
| exactly 100 miles covered, an average of a
| mile to each fight, but until the machine
| had received its final improvements the
| flights were mostly Short as is evidenced
by the fact that the fight of October 8 was
| longer than the 10o flights of the year 1904
| together.
Measured by Anemometer.
| THE lengths of the flights were meas
| ured by Richard thermometer, which was
| attached to the machine. The records were
| found to agree closely with the distances
measured over the ground when the flights
were made In calm air over q straight
course; but when the flights were made in
| circles a close comparison was impossible
because 1t was not practicable to accurately
| trace the course over the ground. In the
! flight of October a total of 29.7 circuits of
| the field was made. The times were taken
with stop watches. In operating the ma
chine it has been our custom for many
4 years to alternate In making flights and
such care has been observed that neither of
| us has suffered any serious injury, though
| in the earlier flights our ignorance and the
| inadeQuacy of the means of control made
| the work exceedingly dangerous.
1.-THE 1905 flyer had a total weight OF
| about 925 pounds including the operator,
| and was of such substantial construction as
| to be able to make landings at high speed
I without being strained or broken From
| the beginning the prime object was to de-
| wise a machine of practical utility, rather
| than a useless and extravagant toy. For
| this reason extreme lightness Of construc-
| ton has always been resolutely rejected
| On the other hand, every effort has been
made to increase the scientific efficiency OF
| the wings and screws in order that even
| heavily built machines may be carried with
| moderate expenditure of power The ia
vorable results which have been obtained
| have been due to improvements In flying
| quality resulting from more scientific design
| and to improved methods of balancing and