Evening star., 1909-07-13
Wright Brothers and Signal
Corps Men Inspect Country.
SECLUDED SPOT SOUGHT
Place Where Aviators Can Train
Army Men in Directing Aeroplane.
SHORT FLIGHT YESTERDAY
Machine Up in Air Less Than Seven
Minutes-Up Again Today If
Wind Allows.

The Wright brothers made a fight of
six minutes and forty seconds in the new
government aeroplane at Fort Myer yes
terday. So close was it to dark that it
was impossible to prolong the trial.
This morning the Wrghts spent in in
specting the country around Washington
with Lieut.. Lahm of the Signal Corps,
to locate a satisfactory training ground
| for. the officers who, are to be instructed
in the use of the new machine.
| The officers of the Signal Corps have
expressed themselves as willing to leave
all the details of training flights to the
Wrights themselves.
| 1t is part of their contract with the
War Department that after the new ma
chine has made good two or three Off
GERS shall be instructed in using it. The
/ only officers definitely selected so far are
Lieut.. Frank p. Lahm and Lieut..
| Benjamin D. Foulois.
! They will be trained somewhere near
| Washington. The object of the trip to-
day was to pick out a nying ground bet
ter than that around Fort Myer and
| farther removed from the railroad
| There is not much choice in the region
within twenty miles of Washington. 1t
is all rolling country and decidedly
broken.
Below Mount Vernon and at some other
places along the river there are flat
stretches These as a rule are under
cultivation and nearly all accessible by
steam road or trolley.
Secluded Spot Sought.
One of the aims of the Wrights iss to
get a location where it will be hard for
\ IN bat
presence of a crowd renders training
| flights much more difficult.
| The spectators invariably overrun the
| field. in spite of the best policing precau-
tions AS soon as the officers are trained
| 50 as to make fights by themselves the
presence of spectators urges them to take
more risks than they should.
The ground for the preliminary training g
will be somewhere around Washington,
| owing to the fact that 1t will take consid-
erable time to dismount the machine and
carry it to any distance. The Wrights
have engagements abroad that make time
consideration, aside from their anxiety
to get through with the American con-
| tract as soon as possible.
! They say. however. that a permanent
training ground for officers should be
established in the west. where there is
level open country on which straightaway
flights can be made without difficulty 1t
is likely that such a training ground will
be selected in the neighborhoOd of Fort
Omaha. as soon as the present trials are
completed.
What Happened in Italy.
An instance of the troubles that ensue
when novices make flights before a crowd
is the case of Lieut.. Calderara of the
Italian army, who was instructed in
handling the machine sold this spring to
the Italian government He was par
ticularly apt pupil and allowed to make
fights alone much sooner than any of
the French aviators who were trained
for the Lazare-Weyler syndicate.
After the Wrights left Italy Lieut.. CAL
derara made flight one morning for the
benefit of some friends who had come to
see him. He was not feeling well at the
time. and had no business going up
While aloft he lost consciousness and
fell, breaking up the machine and mar
rowly escaping death himself.
Yesterdays Brief Flight.
The Wrights are not yet willing to
have the new machine up in wind. Com
ing to the fort late in the afternoon, they
found conditions favorable about 4:3O
O'Clock. They ordered the machine out
at once.
But there was some delay in getting
the signal service detail together. Be-
starting rail brisk wind had sprung up.
necessitating a wait of more than two
hours.
While the machine was resting OH the
rail and awaiting a favorable wind. or
rather the absence of wind. the German
| ambassador, Count Bernsdorff. was
brought out by Maj Squier and showed
the machine at close range. 1t is under
stood that the next business contract of
the Wrights will be with German syn
dicate under the official backing of the
kaiser.
There were number of other distin-
guished visitors, including the Mexican
| amba ssador Senator La Toilette, Repre-
| sentative Ramsdell of Louisiana, Secre-
| tary Meyer, Mrs. Nicholas Longworth
| and Joe Letter.
The flight itself was exceedingly short
1t did not start until six minutes past
q O'Clock, when the machine went at
once into the air on about three quarter
engine power. After making one circle
of the ground at a height of little more
than twenty fee the aeroplane began to
climb until it was averaging nearly a
hundred feet at each circle of the
ground.
Aviator Is Satisfied.
| Orville Wright said after the flight that
he was we'll satisfied with the way the
| machine acted, but 1t did not look par
| ticularly perfect flying to the spectators
| who have followed the flights. The ma
| chine was tolerably steady in the air.
| both up and down the field, but at the
turns tilted more than has been noticed
| In any previous trial.
| At times the aviator, who sat upright.
seemed to be making an angle of fully
thirty degrees with the main planes of
| the machine. The flight was probably
| faster than most of the previous trials
! although whether or not it was up to
| forty miles an hour is impossible to say
| The aeroplane made a good landing at
| the south end of the field, close to the
| aeroplane shed.
| There will probably be a flight this
| afternoon between ) and o'clock This
| depends of course, on the weather. The
| Wrights will not make any predictions.
NEW MERCANTILE FIRM.