Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-09-04
speed on a mill pond or making a clever
| pugilSt fight in a barrel
As Comfortable as a Chair.

As Comfortable as a Chair.
Possibly the flight would not have been
so spectacular except for the simple fac
that the aviator was sitting up. If he
had been lying fiat. as was the position
on the first machines. it would have looked
more like a gymnastic feat, and more
in keeping with the sensational perform
ance, but as matter of fact he was
leaning back in his seat with his feet on
the rail in frnnt of him apparently almost
as much at ease and as indifferent as
though he had been driving an automo-
bile. 1t was in fact an aero-auto. 1t
was a thousand-pOund machine with
everything on board, and it was handled
almost as easily as though it had had
wheels and macadam road under it.
1t is interesting to know also that this
machine which fulfilled all its builder s
expectations was built by mathematical
calculations.
Wright'S machine in Paris. nor of any
of the other eight machines in the Day.
ton shop. Its propellers and its lifting
planes were all calculated in advance
from data secured during the Wright
brothers ten years of experiments, and
the fact, that il fulfilled expectations
seems to indicate that they really have
the data and that the application comes
near being an exact science.
Distinguished Men Present. :.
There was quite crowd of distinguish
ed visitors at the drill ground All of
the War Department airship board were
present, including Maj. Squires. Capt.
Wallace. Lieut.. Lahm, Lieut.. Selfridge
and Lieut. Foulois. There were also Gen.
Allen. the chief signal officer; Assistant
Secretary of War Oliver Gen Wither-
spoon. head of the War College; Col Hat
field. commandment of the post, and most
of the officers on duty at Fort Myer:
Capt. WillOughby, a member of the Aero
Club, and an enthusiastic experimenter:
Mr.. Lake. father of Simon Lake, the
submarine builder; Mr.. George Call. who
lis now building an aeroplane at Girard.
Kan: DIR. Albert Zahm OF the Catholic
the Aero Club of America: Glenn Curtiss,
the builder of the June Bug; Mr.. Fair
child, son-in-law of Alexander Graham
Bell; Clifford Pinchot chief of the for
est service: Prof. w J MCGEE secretary
of the inland waterways commission, and
MIR. Barnes of the forest service.
In searching through the lumber yards
today Mr.. Wright found some lumber
that promised to serve the purpose for his
repairs and had ii sent out to Fort
Myer. The mechanics set to work on it
at once and there is d possibility that
fight may be made this afternoon
Las: night he wired to Dayton for extra
parts. which are at his shop there ready
for shipment. Once the material is at
hand. it will take but a few hours to re-
pair the damage.
The conditions which Wright will have
to fulfill with his aeroplane in order to
secure so, 900 from the government are
extremely severe, and although yester-
days flight has been surpassed by the
Wright brothers at Dayton and in North
Carolina. and by the members of the
Aerial Experiment Association at Ham,
mondsport, y. Y, there is little doubt
expressed as to whether the Wright
brothers can fulfill the requirement of the
specifications.
Wright Is Confident.
Orvlle Wright is confident that he will
do all that is required by the contract.
He claims that if he had been higher in
tn ; air during yesterdays flight he could
have corrected the error he made with
out coming to earth. In the official speed
flighr it will be necessary for him to as
tain points. This will be much higher
than any aviator has yet dared to go with
/ d heavieI-than air machine.
Practice flights with the Wright broth
ers machine will be frequent at Fort
Myer from now on. and il may be several
weeks before the official flights for speed
and endurance are made. In their earlier
aerCplanes the Wright brothers have con-
trolled the machine while laying fat but
i'm the new machine built for the govern
ment the operator occupies sitting posi-
ton. and the levers are turned in a
direction dramatically opposite to the
former method. This change in the sys-
tenn of control was indirectly the cause OF
\ .@.kr <l,,' ..,1.,,