Omaha daily bee., 1909-05-02
OF AIRSHIPS BUSY
A Dozen of Them Are Now at Work
Up at Morris Park.
SOME HARD PROBLEMS TO SOLVE
Machines Of Varied Types Are Under
Construction, but Dimculty of
Getting Engines One of
Troubles Encountered.

NEW YORK, April n.-lt Is possible that
the early days of summer will see the
thrilling spectacle Of suburbanites In air
ships on their way home from business.
performing figures OF eight over the city.
But, however that may be, there will be
plenty Of attempts at flying up at the old
racetrack at Morris park, where would-be
aviators are busy with aeroplanes, helicop-
ters. gliders and other air craft.
AN enthusiast Not a bit of it." said
one of them the other day. He was lying
on his back under his airship engaged in
Tightening a bolt that had worked loose
and spoke through the spars of the aero
plane. I'm not an enthusiast: I'm the
sanest man on earth.
II know my machine will fly right
enough as soon as I get everything tuned
up properly. This game takes time. One
has a lot to learn.
Il tumbled the first time I got on a
BIKE. Do you suppose I'm to be dis
heartened because 1 came a topper the first
time 1 tried to fly?
A the same there are some enthusi-
asts I've heard Of who say they will alight
in the great white way before the sum-
mer is through. But sooner or later Il will
come; oh, yes. It will come sure enough.
Not that I would say stop building new
subways. The subways will be useful
enough; they'll probably be transformed
into a pneumatic system for the express
age of parcels.
Motors the Great Need.
You may think I am Joking when I tell
you that 1t is not a want Of machines or
pluck, but only a lack of motors that 10
holding us New Workers back. But that's a
feet. You don't need to go to Paris to
see aeroplanes being built. Here is this
factory in full swing right in New York
City. But the difficulty now is to get
motors.
THE other day a New York nan with a
big, bankroll spent the entire afternoon
In automobile row trying to buy a motor
and couldn't. He got so in the end that
he would have taken almost anything in
the shape of a motor. His machine is COM
plete all but for his engine. The one he
first bought isn't any good.
HE wanted to pay spot cash, too. But
he couldn't succeed. The best thing you
can do is to buy an automobile and take
the motor out That's what he was told"
Then the same man crawled back out
from under his aeroplane and again walked
around the apparatus trying things.
II any Oht WdItb 10 see IlylnB mdCnlneS
being built there is no call to go to Paris.
Five cents on the West Farms subway to
nth street and then another nickel on a
Morris Park avenue trolley, about forty
five minutes ride altogether from BrooyIyn
bridge, brings you right to the spot where
there are six or seven machines on the
stocks.
Aero Factory on Race Track.
The aero factory is situated on the lawn
of the old racetrack at Morris park. now
the aviation grounds of the Aeronautic So
ciety. In front is the ~octagonal building,
which is the lecture theater OF the Tnterna-
tional School of Aeronautlcs and in which
hang models made to scale and beautifully
finished of every airship and flying ma
chine that has successfully accomplished
flight, and where the novice can begin with
the A B c OF aviation and go on till he
is actually flying in the skies outside.
In the foreground the other day were
two men working upon an aeroplane not
very dissimilar from that with which
Wilbur Wright has been astounding old
Europe. In the middle distance was a man
practicing with a glider preparatory to at
tempting flight with a power driven ma
chine. Away to tho right stretched the
| BTuuIluS WhlCn lHe AtTOildNllC society
hopes soon to make famous.
Near by the grand stands of the old race
track days, which may sometime be
thronged with spectators watching races
such as until a few months ago no man
dreamed of witnessing. A conspicuous OBJ
ject in the infield is the catapult, the
mechanical continuance which some avia-
tors, among them the wrights, use in
launching themselves into the air.
On pleasant days most of the machines
are moved outside of the workshops for
the added pleasure of working In the sun
shine. Those are the nearly completed
ones. Others in their earlier stages are
inside, some, in fact, under lock and hey,
for their inventors have not yet settled
their applications for patents and so are
keeping their new ideas as secret as pcssi-
BILE.
Flying Machines in the Raw.
The big outer workshops present a curl
Gus spectacle. Ranged up under one of
the walls on the day of the writer's visit
was the New York No. 1, waiting for
some changes that early experiments
showed were necessary. Further along,
not yet assembled, lay all the parts Of
another machine, said to be one of the
biggest and heaviest yet designed. It's
framework Is to be entirely of steel tub
ing.
Slung from the roof were other strange
looking machines of all sorts and In all
stages of construction. In a big pile at
the farthest end lay a quantity of wreck
age-the wreckage OF efforts to solve The
secret Of aviation. Out In the center OF
the shop a couple of men were putting
the finishing touches on a big glider.
Five minutes chat with them showed
that, in its early stages at any rate, fly
ing is not half so easy a stunt as II SCENE
to be to those who have had the oppor-
tunity to see the Wrights sailing through
the air with apparent unconcern. A glider,
it might be explained for the uniniated.
is an aeroplane without a motor or any
driving power appliance.
The operator either sits in 1t and let's
himself be shot out OF the catapault, or
he hangs on to the center with his arm
pits and springs off the top of a bank
or some such elevation. This exercise may
be a little alarming and violent, but Il is
said 10 be excellent fun, and with practice
long glides through the air can be made.
To the aviator the chief use OF the
: glider is practice In manipulating the ma
chine. 1t answers to him something OF the