The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1906-10-23
HUMAN FLIGHT POSSIBLE.
Progress Made in Flying Ship Con-
struction Prophetic of Early and
Complete Solution of Problem.

BY HENRY HELEN CLAYTON,
OF the Blue HIN Observatory
But little more than 100 years ago
the first successful trip Of man into
The blue sky was made by Montsofer
in France, and our own Benjamin
Franklin, who witnessed this first
flight. or one Immediately succeeding
it, said: 1T is an infant to-day, but
ii may become a giant"
! How soon the brain OF men became
/ busy with this thought is shown by
a letter to Franklin on May "a, 1854,
/ from Francis Hopkinson. In which he
suggested that the balloon De made
not spherical. but oblong or spindle
shaped and driven by a wheel at the
stern.
The first elongated balloon was
BULL by Rufus Porter TOT the United
States about 1888. Successive i'm
provements along this line were made
BY the French engineer Gaffard by
lissandier, by Renard and Krebs and
| finally by Santos Dumont and by I.e-
5audie who have brought the speed
to Y or II miles an hour But even
at these speeds the balloon is but the
playthIng Of the wind. which at
height Of 500 to 600 feet has an ay-
erage speed Of Is or more miles an
hour, so that the air could only be
nayigated by this means in quiet
weather
Calculation showed that it would
not be possible to increase the speed
greatly, without bursting the fimsy
materials Of which the balloons are
built, and il is not possible to make
these stronger without losing the
needed lifting power, Hence, thought.
full men had ceased to look forward
with any great hope to success along
this line
On the other hand, an army Of eager
workers was endeayoriug to solve the
problem of initiating the bird and /
driving themselves through the air on
lifting planes or wings Volumes +
have been written to describe the I
many attempts along this line. Hun +
dreds OF eXperimenters since the DAYS
of Daedalus have attempted flight and /
failed. but hope springs eternal and I
men rise on stepping stones OF their /
dead selves to higher things"
Finally amid universal failure signs
Of success began to appear I.ilien-
thai showed that il was possible 10 /
glide down hill on outstretched wings
or planes for many hundreds OF feet
and land safely Langley succe-d ed .
In flying model carrying a steam
engine for about a mile In free flight, /
Hiram Maxim built a large flying
machine. driven by wonderfully /
light engine of 390-horse power. which
actually rose into the air for a brief
interval lifting weight OF 1000 I
pounds but WAS speedily wrecked.
Langley built man-lifting machine,
which vas caught at the moment OF
and wrecked wave OF
s&epticicm and ridicule swept through
the country and many thought that
man flight was an impossible dream.
But already quietly at work we're
Two young manufacturers the Wright
brothers Of Ohio, who, following in
The footsteps of Lilienthal Of G r..
many and Chanute and Herring OF orr
)wn country, We're learning to glide
down Hill in a properly constructed
machine to balance in the air and To
and safely Ingenious improvements
we're devised and introduced and the
machine was ready for the trial of
motor Pr0fting by the accumulated
experience Of those who had previous ,
y tried and by the very light motors ,
which have been developed for auto
rohies and boats. an engine for
irving their machine was built and ,
successful but brief preliminary ,
light was made in December. 1903.
Brief though il was the possibility ,
+ human flight had been demonstrat :
.. and hey set about perfecting the q,
Machine. BY tie autumn Of 1906 the 4
lachine was So far perfected that q
lcre began over the prairies near 6.
layton, o., remarkable series II /;
i2hts- On September Is one q the =,
'righ's made fliaht Of little over +,
miles. On September 80 this was
lcreased 70 u Is miles. on October
TO 10 is miles and on the 5th ID
"a miles during which flights the
perator remained IN the air IS min =
ies. The flights were made In cir. "
es or figure eigh's, returning TO ths q.
ariing point. and were al a speed ~
bout IS miles an hour.
After centuries Of effort .ur5e+sf1l =.
light is ~ last accomplished After "
undreis Of failures. the loss OF uanv 7.
YES and Of many thousands ~ dol.
rs, one Of the greatest achiey-rrr7-s ',
history. the conquest Of the air..
as auspiaiously begun. !,
III