Evening star., 1909-07-19
Novice Flyer Dashed to Earth
and AeropIane Wrecked.
AMATEUR LOST HIS HEAD
Inventor Himself Has Just Made
Phenomenal Flight.
WAS TEACHING OTHERS TO FLY
First Man Made Successful Ascent,
But Second Man Was Nervous
and Did Wrong Things.

NEW YORK. July $50 dazed, ap-
rarently, by his fight in air that he FOR
got how TO control the machine. Mex
andcr Williams Of No. go West 18TH
street Manhattan. was dashed flftS rect
10 earth early yesterday morning near
Mineola, l.. l., with the aeropane IN
which Glenn II. Curtiss had MADE MS
record fight on last Saturday.
Williams left arm was broken ABOVE
the elbow and his left thumb was frac-
tured. The machine, which turned up
side down. was smashed so badly that
repairs will take week or ten days.
How Williams escaped instant death
is a mystery. The doctors say he prob
ably will get out of the Nassau Hospi-
tai within a week.
Prior to Williams disaster, Charles f.
Willard of Brooklyn made his maiden
effort as an aviator and flew between
300 and 400 yards at an altitude of ten
feet.
Agreed to Teach Two Men.
The aeroplane which Curtiss has been
flying over Hampstead Plains recently
was built on an order from the Aero
nautic Society. Last Thursday it be-
came the property of the society after
Curtiss had agreed to instruct Williams
and Willard in handling it.
After his fight Saturday Curiss ar
ranged TO give the two would-be avia-
tors their primer lessons YESTERDAY morn
ing Only a few persons were on hand.
Willard won the toss for first flight.
got into the seat and listened carefully
to Curtiss' instructions. After run OF
forty feet he turned up the front planes
and began to soar. He lost control
couple of times and came near plunsing
,trrl, o1syyv,r ~
brought the machine down safely about
four hundred yards from the starting
point.
Curtiss flew back in the machine to
the southern end of the field. 1t was
apparent that Williams was under an in
tense strain. His face was white and
drawn. To the parting instructions OF
Curtiss he simply nodded his head in
dumb acquiescence.
The little flyer is a peculiarly sem
sitive mechanism. and the way 1t jog
gied and teetered over the rough stub
BILE in its long preliminary run of 800
feet indicated the amateur operator was
nervous.
Disaster Foreseen.
Disaster seemed forecast TO the prae-
ticed eyes of Curtiss and his head
mechanician, Tod C. Shriver. The latter
man turned to Curtiss and groaned:
shes done for, Glenn
Williams hung Imply in his seat. He
seemed stupefied. He had been strictly
enioined not to move the rear rudder,
but the aeroplane had scarcely leaped
off the earth when he did just that for
hidden act The machine turned within
an extremely short area and tilted on its
left side 1t continued to rise, however.
with the angle of the tilt increasing until
the fear-stricken spectators expected to
see Williams topple out.
In a despairing effort to remedy his
blunde- he twisted the rear rudder the
wrong way and the machine dipped far
ther sideways. BY that time the aero
plane had gone ten feet higher. but
from that altitude 1t began to slide TO
the ground.
Instead of shooting straight down, it
turned about in a spiral. 1t struck the
ground within few yards of the spot
whence 1t had taken flight. The front
elevating plane was the first to touch
and splintered Hike match. Driven
around by the whirring propeller, the
left ends Of the main planes next
smashed against the ground and the taut
wires snapped.
Aeroplane Is Wreck.
Still moving under the impetus OF the
propeller. the machine pitched over and
the rear rudder snapped. Finally, wrong
side up, the aeroplane settled on the
ground.
In spite OF IT'S position, however, the
motor continued to purr at full speed
and the knifelike propeller churned
around at 2.4O revolutions a minute.
Had Williams been within the sweep