University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1908-11-17
PROGRESS IN
AERONAUTICS

IT RENCH reporters have succeeded a
r great deal better in inducing Will
bur Wright to talk than anyone on
this side of the water. A good instance
of this is seen in the interviews with Mr..
Wright which recently appeared in
LAutO. As the third and last article
contains some matters which have not
hitherto been made known over here.
portions of it may be interesting to.
quote. An important point in the his
tOric sense is the part played in the
brothers discoveries by the Chicago en-
gineer, Mr.. Oscar Chanute, it having
been rather widely supposed that he ex-
ercised a preponderating influence over
them, in that they We're his disciples and
were in a manner brought up in aeron-
autics by him. MIR. Wilbur Wright
makes it clear that the case was far
otherwise. 1t was MIR. Chanute who
interested himself in the work of the
American brothers. Rumors of their do
ings caused him to visit Dayton, Ohio,
after their trials had been pursued for a
period of two years; prior to which time
they had never met MIR. Chanute, far
less confded their views to him or ac-
cepted him as their best friend and coun-
cillor, as the story had formerly gone.
Furthermore" added Mr.. Wright,
when we became acquainted it appear
ed that our ideas were very often in
conflict with his, and 1 can assure you
that, in the main, Chanute's notions of
the principles of aviation and our own
are almost totally opposed. We often
disagreed, but nothing will alter the pro-
found respect which my brother and L
had for this ornament of his profession.
whose name vii 60 down to history as
one of the greatest pioneers"
Asked as to why his aeroplane was
superior to others, Mr.. Wright hesitated,
then answered: For several good rea-
sons, but 1 regret that l cannot con-
fide all of them to you. You will readily
that two such enthusiasts
with single purpose as are my brother
and could not devote ourselves during
years to the perfection of grand idea
to it's smallest details without realizing
what an infinite number of little things
all combined to the achievement of act
ual success. You might examine our
aeroplane for days together without
discovering crowd of things which, in
make it better than Others
For example, this warping of the wing
extremities by means of this lever, to
which your expert flyers seem to attach
an exaggerated Importance, is princi-
oally for facilitating manoeuvring, par
when desiring to turn sharply in
small compass, but there are many other
appliances on this machine of equal i'm
'Ortance which pass unnoticed by those
who have looked it over. Of course L
I'M sure You will excuse me from divulg-
ng the nature of them to you.
Know, however, that the chief point
# our superiority lies in the high degree
# efficiency which We have achieved
With our propellers. If you wish to
make comparisons l may tell you that
asst year a technical commission ap-
ointed by the United States Minister
f Marine made some experiments on
his subject, and studied propellers made
Britain, France, and Germany. None
the propellers tested gave more than
rom 80 to 60 per cent of efficiency,
'hereas ours give between 20 and p per
ent of efficiency"
Being requested to give his opinion
to the position of the French School
Aviation, Mr.. Wilbur Wright said he
as full of admiration for the strenu-
us efforts that had been made by it
nd for the progress achieved by its
aders with, oftentimes. very INSULT
ent means. If it might not appear
npertinent on his part to offer them a
ord of advice, however. he would point
ut that they were following a false
ent IN allowing themselves to be hvp-
'tized into searching incessantly for
ght and Yet lighter motors. Those
lat We have in actual service in our
aehine. like ourselves. do not weigh
anime too much,' said Mr.. Wright.
'erhaps 1t would be impossible for me
furnish a more absolute proof than to
ample NJ. Leon Bollee. who himself
eighs over 30 pounds. and with whom
have flown for lengthier period than
y French colleagues have flown each
themselves. Believe me. they must
rn their researches in another d;rec-
On"