The morning journal-courier., 1908-05-15
AIR NAVIGATORS MEET DISASTER Kite Like Airship Crashes to the Ground After Great
 est Flight Ever
 Made.
EIGHT MILES IN ' MINUTES
American Machine Sails Through the Air at Will-Accdcnt Due to Incxpcricncc of
 Driver.

Norfolk, Va, May 14.-Disaster to-
 y overlook the daring aeronauts, ..1ilbur and Orvile Wright, who have Gor two weeks made successful flights with their aeroplane at XII Devil Hill. North Carolina, for after the greatest flight ever made with a sim liar machine, the aeroplane was wrecked.
 Wilbur Wright the navigator, es- capped unhurt, except for scratch on
 his face, but the machine was smash
 ed and is now useless for further tests.
 The aeroplane had flown eight miles
 in seven minutes and forty seconds
 under perfect control and the disaster
 was due to an error by the navigator,
 who directed the course of the ma
 chine downward too quickly. The
 wrong lever was used and the bird
 like frame work darted downward
 striking the ground. with great force.
 The machine was wrecked behind a
 sand hill two miles from it's starting point. After leaving the house where
 1t is kept the aeroplane jarted ] through the air for q mile and d half
 along the beach when it turned west
 ward for a flight of probably twomiles. From here a second turn was made directly toward the starting point and
 the homeward progress was made un- I der great headway until the accident
 occurred which cost the inventors x their machine.
 [ Allowing for the long curves and \ angles made by the flying apparatus, X the distance covered during this last { and fateful flight was about eight < miles and if the machine had returned | to it's mooring ten mile course would have been covered and tho worlds record for aeroplanes would have been ' broken.
 < Disappointed but undaunted, the r Wright brothers began Immediately after the wreck to pack up .h sir cf- fleets, including the remnants of the 2 shattered prize, preparatory to Its 2 shipment to their home In Dayton 4 Ohio. No more tests will be made on \ the bleak North Carolina coast for the {. present
 ! Not since Wrights have been at XII '. Devil Hill has their machine appeared so complete and instrument for aeria ,inavigntlon as 1t did to-day when 1t sail \. ed its last flight.
 d Inexperience on the part of the oper Aators in the manipulation of the new afsteerlng gear resulted in the disaster cYThis gearing has just been perfected hsand installed and Wilbur Wright wa lalcvidently unfamiliar with It's operation M Earlier In the day a short flight wa -simade with orville Wright and Furnass EIthe machlnist in the seats of the ma R!chine This covered a course of, abou Ia mile and a half, and was refnarka . Klhle in the light of former feats, onl. lin the fact that its course was at al ftimes on a curve
 The inventors intended to continu ftheir experience here as long as the dconld do so without being hampere aby too many curious eyes. The aero
 dnauts arc afraid some one may lear
 jtheir secret, and they took no chance
 3n safeguarding the machine.
 \ They kept 1t in sheltered hous
 1Dehind a sand dune near the life say fling station and they slept close 10 iwlth loaded rife within reach. Whe
 aany person suspected of being a news
 jbaper correspondent or photographic
 ilpeared anywhere on the beach, the in
 atentors lost no time In covering tn eroplane and carrying 1t to thei House Nevertheless, quite number c Iisitors arrived in the vicinity, mostl
 lnagazne and newspaper writers an
 I1hotogra phers.