The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1908-09-15
HIS AERoPLANE cuTs ALONG AT
FORTY MILE An HOUR GAIT.
BY CROWD
For the First, Time, Yesterday, He
Demonstrated That He Can Control.
His Machine While Describing 4
Figure Eight.

and &c seconds, Orville Wright late
today surpassed all his previous rec
ords for time and distance Of flight
for a heavier.than-air machine. Two
flights were made at Fort Myer, Va.
today, the first being i houf, 10 min.
utes and 2e seconds duration, for the
purpose of showing what rate Of speed
he has been travelling during lis
flights OF the past two days. Today's
test demonstrated, according to the
aviator's calculations, that the speed.
OF the aeroplane during the record.
breaking flights Of Wednesday and
Thursday was 1857 miles an hour.
MI. Wright arrived at the testing
grounds at Fort Myer at 4 o'clock
and Immediately prepared to make a
fight. He had been in conference
with Lieutenant Sweet, the represen-
tative Of the navy at the trials, in con
nection with the plans for the naval
branch Of the service for adopting
aeroplanes.
The weather was ideal and MI.
Wright lost no time. Before making
the first flight, Mr.. Wright said:
II want to take a flight of about
10 minutes in order to see how my
present speed compares with what I
made at Kittyhawk, N. q. / have a
time and distance apparatus attached
to the aeroplane, but Al It registers
only 10 kilometers without repeating,
l have to make a short flight in order
to determine the speed at which the
machine travels through the air"
Starting at 4:41 the aeroplane made
nine rounds Of the drill grounds and
then. landing within a few feet of
the thousand or more spectators, Mr..
Wright computed the speed Of his
record breaking flight.
."The annemometer registers liza
kilometers," said Mr.. Wright, "mak-
ing the speed a little over 81 miles
an hour. We made "A miles an hour
at Kittyhawk, with a little less power.
OF course, the turns there were much
longer and therefore did not impair
the speed as much as the turns I
make here, but ] had an idea there
was great difference"
Later WI. Wright found that he
had miscalculated the speed and as
finally computed the speed was an.
nounced as 1856 miles an hour.
To those who witnessed Mr..
Wright's flights, marvellous as the re-
suits are, are nov regarded as a mat
ter of course, but the majority Of
those who witnessed today's long
flight we're reused to greater enthu-
siasm when the aviator for the third
successive day broke his best pre-
vious record.
Fifty-seven times the machine
passed v the starting point during
the 20 minutes and "a seconds that
1t was up. Twice the a%eroplanist de-
scribed the figure '8" showing for
the first time during his Fort Myer
fight that he could control his ma
chine in any direction. A feature Of
the landing was that he did not stop
the motor until the machine touched.
the ground. Octav Chanute, one of
the foremost aeronauts In the coun-
try arrived in Fort Myer today.
"The Wright brothers began their
work in aeronautics in an unusual
way" saidSMr. Chanute. "Orville was
convalescing from scarlet fever, and
his brother, Wilbur, read Pettigrew's
book on aeronautics to him. Soon
after, the taeronautical annual was
published and the Wright brothers
learned from its pages what had been
done toward conquering the air.
"The experiments started then"
Before making another ascension at
Fort Myer, Mr.. Wright will make q
few changes in his machine in order
to cur greater speed.