The Washington herald., 1909-07-27

wan No+-44yA 10 l-BiAL OL Llfu ana AlQ-
rich 70 left Of him, the President Of
the United States sat in his tent at Fort
9Iyer yesterday afternoon and watched
OrviHe Wright rise from the earth with
out the help Of a falling weight, and
made a spectacular. careening. upshoot-
Ing, and sides;eppins flight IN q seven
teen-mIe gale.
ANY way the performance IS looked at.
II was worth Presidents watching.
True. it wasn't the official endurance
test. which It would have been # the
wind had been more amenable 10
reason. But It was a flight in a
comparative gale, and demonstrated that
the Wright biplane can iy when the ele-
ments are against II. The machine was
started on the Impetus Of nothing but
| its propeuers. After remaining up for
two and a half minutes It scudded down
TO the ground between the gusts Of
wind. scraped up a bit OF dust. and
came 70 rest without an injury that could
be discovered with The acid test
RecOrd-brenking Crowd.
The largest crowd that has lined the
/ parade ground during the present series
or trials was OF hand, attracted by the
/ announcement that with proper wind
and weather conditions. the Official en-
I durance fight would be attempted.
The assembIage included also the larg-
est group Of distinguished persons up 10
/ date, barring not even that other IL
| starred and martyred band that several
wooks ago went ont prematurely and
/ came back some other way.
/ Vice President Sherman was there. as
well as the President Among the others
were the leader OF the Senate. Senator
! Aldrich; Speaker Cannon. Of the House;
/ Secretary Of War Dickinson. Postmaster
| General Hitchcock. Lieut.. Gen. s. B. "
/ Young, IiauL Gen. Nelson A. Miles. the
/ French Ambassador. the Minister or
/ Greece. Assistant Secretary Of Commerce
/ and labor NcHarg. Assistant Secretary
I OF War Oliver. former Senator Hemen-
/ way. Senators Elkins, Culberscn, Crane.
! Scott. Carter, Dick. and Bourne: Brig
! Gen. Allen, Chief Signal Officer OF the
/ army; Commissioner General Sharpe.
I Brig. Gen. Clarence r. Edwards Surgeon
/ General Aleshire. Adjt Cen. Ainsworth.
| and about fifty Representatives.
Ready for the Test.
All preparations had been made for the
official test OF tLs bipIane's endurance.
in which it is required 20 carry a pas
/ senger besides the operator. 10 remain
IN the air under perfect control for one
. hour at any speed It likes. and TO demon
strate its ability 10 land without injury
TO the aviatOrs. The board OF judges was
on hand. consisting Of Maj. George o.
Squier. Of the Signal Corps. chair
man; Mai Saltzman. Lieuts. Lahm and
/ Foulois Of the Signal Corps: Lieut..
Humphreys, Of the Engineer Corps. tenn
pOTarily detailed 10 duty with the Signal
/ Corps and Lieut. Sweet. Of the navy.
/ The wind however. maintained a high
velocity until late in the afternoon. and
although the Wright brothers gave the
/ order az $50 o'clock for the removal OF
/ the bipane from the shed 20 the mono
] rail- they decided after a wait Of half
an hour that the official endurance test
would rot be attempted.
! There were two reasons for their de-
cision: The wind was stiu too high for
] EASY Al INK Win dI extra LltAM GNNaAk a.
and there was not enough time left TO
l set in the sixty minutes before dark
The brothers said they would send the
machine up for a short exhibition flight
anyhow. and while Orville stood at the
engine 10 talk 10 it in a language il un-
derstoOd, Wilbur and the mechanician,
Charles Taylor, went aft 20 the propeller
blades. and 'cranked' the motor. With
a rush Of air backward the motor sprang
into life Wilburs hat tipped of his
head in the sudden gale NitH tre
7 ture OF a iUggler he caught il as IL
sped away from him.
Orvile climbed into his seat. touched
the spark control and speeded up tho
motor
4 Surprising Incident.
Look; he's going TO start Without the
weight cried somebody in the crowd
who was familiar with the usual prepar-
/ atory operations.
Wilbur laid hand on the right wing
| tip, braced himself, and glanced az his
brother In the machine. Orville reached
down for the releasing mechanism.
Without the impetus Of the l.565-pound
weight 70 give &c speed. the blplane start
ed slowly down the rail It's velocity
picked up quickly, but az the end OF the
rail It still showed no inclination TO
leave the ground II looked as il the
Wrights were courting failure IN the
face OF the largest crowd that has gone
out 70 see this machine.
For 100 feet after leaving the rail- the
flyer hugged the ground. scraping lightly
over It, Then came the change with
a jerk the machine lifted its head and
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