The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1908-06-09
FIRST Description
OF WRIGHT AIRSHIP
Inventors Give Details Of the Ma
chimes Construction.
HAVE PERFECT FAITH IN IT
Confident That, Barring Accidents, 1t
Will Satisfy the Requirements of
the American Government in the
Tests in August.

X the American government IN the
Tests in August.
Dayton, Ohio.-Orviile E. Wright,
one of the Wright brothers, declared
that he and his brother have solved
the aerial navigation question to the
extent that barring accident they are
sure to fulfil their contract with the
Government for flying machine that
will stay in the air one hour and ira
vel distance of five miles and return
at rate of forty miles an hour.
Mr. Wright said that he was conf
dent the Wright aeroplane would
make a successful fight at Fort
Myers, Notwithstanding the condition
of the test ground, which could hard
ly be more unfavorable.
II believe that our machine is the
nearest approach to the practical flyer
in existence" said Mr.. Wright THE
French, who claim to be the greatest
investigators of aerial navigation, are
modelling their machines after the
'Wrightype as nearly as they can
without infringing on our patents.
with the exception of few de-
tails of construction that had neces-
sarily to be kept secret in order to
preserve the commercial value of our
invention, practically every part of
our machine has been patented in
every country in Europe and in Amer
lea.
I'm few months our patents will
be complete. Then full and de-
tailed description of our machine will
be made public.
ITO date neither my brother nor
myself has issued description of our
machine of any sort. I understand
that New York paper is publishing
description of our machine, under
the signatures of my brother and my
self. We are not parties to the deal"
Here is Mr.. Wright's description of
the machine, which differs from other
flyers, in that it is much more COM
pact Approximately it consists of a
box-like frame forty feet wide, seven
feet long and seven and one-half feet
deep, made of spruce and ash. At
the centre and to the front is front
rudder," feature which the Wrights
Introduced and which has proved SUI
perior to the old method of rear
rudder.
In the centre to the rear is the
"tail" of the machine, approximately
twelve feet in length, less than one
third the length of those on French
flyers This consists in different mod
els of one or two vertical cloth-cov-
cred frames. At the rear, balancing
the machine, and as near the centre
as possible, are twp propellers.
Below the framework and toward
the front is a "skid" similar to run
ners on sleds. This is used for land
ing and differs in this particular from
the French machines, which are
equipped with wheels.
Regarding this particular device
Mr.. Wright says: with the wheels
arrangement the French find it dan
gerous to effect a landing on smooth
ground with machine travelling at
rate of more than ten miles an hour.
With our skid we can land safely
on any ground other than absolutely
hilly while our machine is travelling
at rate of fifty miles an hour with
out any particular danger to the ma
chine or the persons operating it,"
In the centre of the machine, at
the bottom, is small double-wheel
truck which, running on mono-rail,
is used while the machine is acquiring
speed enough to leave the ground.
The mono-rail is easily movable in
any direction.
The Wright machine weighs about
eight hundred pounds, and in addi-
ton to it's own weight, including a
four-cylinder motor of between TWEEN
ty-five and thirty horsepower and
made by the Wright Brothers them.
selves, can carry men and fuel enough
to drive the machine 800 miles.
1t can carry enough fuel with one
man aboard to travel 500 miles.
In the tests at Kitty Hawk the
E'achine made five-mile flight, trav-
cling as high as sixty miles an hour.
The Governments test is away below
the machines limit, according to Or
Vile Wright.
He says that the same model used
in the Kitty Hawk trials will be used
in the Government tests.
The tests will have to be success
fully made before August %.