The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-06-30


airships soaring over New York
city.
The Herald's artists can make
that picture so true to life that you
would look at it and take your oath
that Wilbur Wright and Count
Zeppelin were about to settle down
They have made such picture,
on the Metropolitan Life tower.
and that picture was in the Herald
several weeks ago. But the ques-
ton is, man to man, could Mr..
Wright and the Count do these
things?
Yes, absolutely yes, and that's
what makes the picture such a re-
markable one. They could do it
because they have done things ten
fold more difficult. To find out
about Count Zeppelin it will be
necessary to look in the Herald of
June l. 1t tells of his flight of
$50 miles in thirty-seven hours.
During the greater part of that
fight the airship moved at an alti-
tude of one mile.
Every bit as good a showing has
been made with the aeroplane. On
December 31st last Wilbur Wright,
in France, won the Michelin prize
of $4,000 by flying 124 kilometres
700 metres, approximately 100
miles. In this fight he was in the
air two hours twenty-three minutes
and twenty seconds, and during this
remarkable feat the mercury stood
several degrees below the freezing
point.
Mr.. Wright came down simply
because his hands became so numb
that he could no longer handle the
levers. He could have flown twice
as long, he could quadruple that
record to-day, without doubt, but
so long as it is world record what
is the use of burning gasolene?
Only few days prior to this
achievement Mr.. Wright won an
other prize in France by sending his
aeroplane to an altitude of about
six hundred feet, where he circled
about for half an hour and then
came down to the point of start
ing.
If the Wrights were so disposed
they could start their aeroplane
over on Long Island and fly about
over New Yorks skyscrapers just
as easily as they made similar flights
in France and Italy. They were re-
Gently offered a fabulous sum to
perform that feat, but declined it.
4
reds, of heavier than air machines
now completed in this country, but
few of them have ever been off the
ground. There are many reasons
why these tiedglings have not yet
i1oWn, and it is too long and too
technical story to tell here.
However, it is common sense to
assume that what the Wrights have
done others can do and will do
What Count Lambert Tissandier
and other pupils of the Wrights are
now doing in Europe proves that.
When it comes to the practical COM
mercial side of the aeroplane as a
vehicle of traffic, that is another
matter. The future must take care
OF all that
The chances are that if you or
or the average everyday mortal
could do these things we would
go right out and do them and keep
flying around until the photograph
erS mad all had a short and the
morning newspapers had blocked
out seven column blackface head
lines. Then we would come down
and be received at the Waldorf or
the Astor and smile modestly and
say we were so glad to do something
that pleased good old New York.
Count Zeppelin and the \Nrights
are not built that way. If they
We're they never would have beaten
the world in this game of human
flight The Wright brothers have
gone about the thing precisely as
II they expected when they died to
have this inscription placed on their
monuments:
Here lie Wilbur and Orville
Wright. God made them to fly.
They couldn't help it.
They studied five years before
they attempted to build flying
machine Then they worked for
fifteen years as few men have ever
worked at any job. They were de-
termined to do what man had never
before accomplished and they sue
ceeded. Nature seemed to have CIV
en- them every equipment for the
task. Now they are looking for
contracts with governments and
care very little for cheers from old
Broadway.
SOME NEWS SHOULD BE ia.