Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-08-21
ORVILLE REACHES Fl. MYER
He'll. Take to the Air Just as Soon
as 'Tis All Together.
DOESN'T LOOK LIKE DARE DEVIL
Nor Does he Bear Out Reputation
of the Family as Dodger
of Publicity.

N''o
War Department board at Fort Myer,
arrived in Washington this morning and
went direct to Fort Myer. There he met
a number of old acquaintances, Capt
Baldwin. Augustus Post, Lincoln Beachy
and others. He will take off his coat
and go to work assembling his aeroplane
as soon as all OF the machine arrives:
Several of the boxes containing parts
Of the machine were placed in the balloon
house yesterday, and the starting track
was laid down at the balloon tent. But
of course. it is the packing case contain
ing the most important of the aeroplane
parts that is lost. To find this. the me-
clianics and railroad officials are digging
through some million tons of freight be-
tween here and Dayton, and the chances
are that the missing box will come to
light today. The whole consignment Of
material would have been sent to WASH
ington by express and all the trouble
avoided. but. at the time. the express
company could not supply the right sort
of a car to carry the biggest box, and 80
recourse we had to freight.
Not Ready to Fly Yet.
1t will be week OF ten days before the
will be some trials to get line on the
over. Then will come the oficial test
In the interval there will be noth hing to do
but wait. and all that Mr.. Wright asks is
elbow room. He cares nothing about how
many people see him, he says.
That is the mysterious Mr.. Wright. who
doesn't seem so mysterious after all. He
is slight young man. trifie under me-
dunn height with deep blue eyes and a
reddish brown mustache. He dresses
carefully. talks easily and quietly and
does not volunteer information or Opin-
ions. but is frank to answer any sane
question put to him. To all outward ap-
pearance he might be the cashier of a
bank or prosperous young dry goods
merchant. He doesn't look like one of
the two men who have set the whole
fight.
Referring to the mystery that has SEEM
ed to shroud all their proceedings, Mr..
Wright said with smile. "Oh. yes. there
has been q good deal of speculation in
print, and good many things printed
that were not so. principally because the
men who wrote them did not take the
trouble to come and ask US. We could
have set them right on a good many
points. but the idea had gone abroad that
we were unapprOachable and there was
very little effort made to see US.
Twas a Secret Once.
"Of course there was a time when we
were experimenting outside of Dayton
when we did not want certain people to
know what we were doing. At that time
we asked the Dayton papers not to print
anything about the flights and they did
not. But there never was a time when
any Of the reporters there were not free
to come out to the field and see any OF
the trials Our principal safety lay in
the fact that most people did not know
anything about aerial navigation and did
not appreciate the difference between a
dirigible balloon and an aerOplane, so
made flight of five minutes, and it was
known that a dirigible had been up over
half an hour, there was not much atten-
ton paid to the statement.
Mr.. Wright says the ground where the
trials will be made is little smaller than
he would like, on account of the unavO1d-
able nearness of spectators. Aerial navi-
CATION Is not yet an exact science. and
with a heavy machine running almost a
mile q minute. with no certainty where 1t
of a large crowd.
Mr. Wright and his assistants have no
objection to people seeing all that goes on
in the balloon house while the machine is
being assembled, but there will be bar
rier erected and the number Of spectators
inside the house strictly limited, that the
men may have room to work.
Don't Go Too Fast:
Mr. Wright was asked whether he
the aeroplane would be in the direction of
sport or of passenger carrying.
Neither my brother nor | have any
visions Of aerial navigation revolutioniz-
ing modern life for the next few years"
he replied, with smile. Passenger traf-
fic will not be practical till you have an
engine that is fully as reliable or more so
than the steam engine of a locomotive.
That we have not yet, but 1 think the
point in a little while. You cannot think
|of passing over cities and carrying pas
sengers till you have an engine on which
you can absolutely depend. Even then the
roads out Of business any more than the
automobile did or than the railroads put
the horse out of business. There will al
ways be certain sorts Of traffic Guited to
certain sorts of transportation, and we
will have to have all OF them.
Mr.. Wright did not think aerial naviga-
ton would affect the good roads move
ment at all. The overhead highway would
not hurt the development of the terres-
trial highways any more and possibly not
as much as the development of the rail-
road had hurt the building Of better turn
pixies.
The present field Of the airship and the
fying machine said Mr.. Wright lis in
be invaluable. If you send out a number
of scouts in this way and only one OF
them gets back he will have been able
to see and report more than could u hun
dred horsemen in the same time. OF
course there Is always an element of risk
in warfare, and the additional risk thar
will be attendant On aerial reconnaissance
will not be enough to count. In fact
do not think there will be much risk.
think there are about 90 chances In 1N
| in favor Of an airship returning safely
| from a scout. l am convinced that an
aeroplane will be a very hard mark to
! hit"
No Sacrifice to Weight.
AS to his own plans and engine. Mr.
Wright said they were not built with any
particular view to lightness.
I'VE have always sacrificed lightness to
what We believed to be safety he said
| 1.-The French have much lighter engine.
than we use. For instance, their four.
cylinder Antionette motor weighs abou,
40 pounds. compared with our 1850; but
| then you cannot tell much about the rea
weight and horsepower of the French en-.
gines. When they want to tell you what