The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1908-05-30
WHAT or THE hARRiMANs
ANc THE HILLS WHEN THE
SKY Is THE HlGttWAY--ANO
WHAT OF WARf

- ~ 8
(This is the third Of three articles
BY ellison Garden on the fying ma
chine Of the Wright brothers,
which b not a balloon, and which
IL believed to have solved the prob
lem Of aerial navigation)
KIT HAWK. N. c., May 30
What is the future of flying ma
chimes? That seems to be the i'm
portant and pressing question now.
Mechanical flight is solved. 1t is
here. 1t has come just as much
as the steamboat had come when
the first steam-propelled craft strug
gled, amid the wondering gaze of
the people on the banks, up the
Hudson 100 years ago. That craft
worked revolution in eur civiliza-
ton. What will the flying machine
do?
~Will the railroad be abandoned?
Will the ocean no more have ships?
VIII all humanity take to the arr
for going about? Or will the flying
machine turn ont to be scientific
toy Or merely an adjunct to the
art of war?
This is a hard field for prophecy.
One is apt to overdo, or to fall
short. There are facts which are
ignored by the unbridled imagina-
ton, which drifts off into the Jules
Verne fapcfess of huge argosies ply
ing the upper currents of the air.
These poets forget, for instance,
that
;, While supporting surface in.
creases as the square of the in
creased dimensions, weight in
Creases as the cube.
That is mathematical law which
must be considered in predicting
the development and enlargement
of the flying machine. 1t is law
which convinced the great astrono-
lmer Simon Newcomb that mechan-
! zeal flight on a man-carrying scale
never would be reality. He saw
/ the Langley aerodrome in 1896 and
he said: 1T can be done with a
model. biit never with a big ma
chine. Or at feast not until the. dis
eorery Of new force or new ma
teriaI for construction.
But the Wright brothers have
flown two-man carrying machine,
and have kept it in the air SO min
utes. They are preparing now to
show in public another machine
which will fly for an hour, go 125
miles, and carry two men. And
all this has happened in IL years,
since Langley flew his model
If, In the days of crude expert
ment, machine can be built by
two impecunious bicycle mechanics
whtcn- will do this, what will be &C
scomplished when the world really
awakes and turns all the force of
this twentieth century wealth and
inventive genius and energy to de-
velopment?
1t is reasonable to expect, GER
stainly, that another 10 years will
perfect a machine which will carry
say five men-anj VIII make the
journey safely from Washington to
Chicago. With couple of stops
this journey could. no doubt, bbe
made. by the machine which the
Wright brothers will exhibit at
Fort Meyer in the fall.
And what then? A machine like
This will not be balloon 1t will
not be at the mercy of the winds,
any more than are the birds. 1t
! will be a strong, swift fiier-glid.
ing through the air like a great
hawk; sailing against wind at
moderate speed, and when going
with the wind at the winds speed,
plus COO miles an hour of its own.
So. with favoring winds, it might
make an S00-mile course, as the
crow. flies, at 100 miles an hour
the journey in seven and one half
hours.
Light mail would soon be going
via the air route. And passengers
in great hurry, when they became
accustomed to the idea, likewise.
And for war! A bird with a soar
ing radius of 500 or 1000 miles,
and able to carry a charge of dyna-
mite that would wreck battleship
or put a land gun out of business!
Is this not to change the art of
. WARP
\. This was the idea which was
&