The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-07-28
RECORD FOR TWO
ME- n BROKEN
BY WRIGHT
Makes Aeroplane Flight of
Over an Hour
COVERED OVER so MILES
Feae Witnessed by President TAN
Who Warmly Congratulated Sue
cessful Aviator

Washington, July 2S-The world S
aeroplane record for two men. as to
both time and distance was broken
last evening in a beautiful fight of
one hour ~ minutes and 40 seconds
upwards of 80 miles AID at a speed
averaging about 40 miles an hourly
Orville Wright at Fort Myer with
Lieut., Frank p. Lahm Of the army sig
nal corps at passenger.
The cheering which heralded the
setting of a new mark in the conquest
of the air was led by President Taft,
who sat an intensely interested spec
tator throughout the flight and who
insisted at its conclusion upon person
ally congratulating the brothers upon
their success. This success was all
important to the Wrights in that it
completed the first of two crucial
tests of their machine imposed upon
them by the United Safes govern
ment-the socalled endurance test,
which required them to remain one
hour continuously in the air with one
passenger. Orville did nearly 10 min
utes better than that, and could have
kept on indefnitely-three hours and
a half the limit imposed by the gaso-
line capacity of the supply tank
There was an evident sluggisnness
in the rise of the bird-like machine
as compared with the ascent when
Wright flew alone but she rose grace
fully nevertheless and when she veer-
ed around careening at an angle
which seemed perilous to the on-look-
ers. to make the nortnward flight
along the Arlington cemetery bound
airy, it was at a height of nearly so
feet, and never after that was there
any possible question of her buoyancy
and equipoise. Round and round she
went, "a times about the great drill
ground-4000 feet in circumference, at
height varying but slightly save
where some stray current of air from
between the trees or buildings rocked
her up and down or from side to side,
like a boat in a gentle sea.
AS the nour drew to its close ex-
element became intense. A thous-
and watches were out and eagerly
scanned At the conclusion of the
10th turn, a great shout went up; au-
tomobile horns were footed in deaf
ening chorus and handclapping and
cheers told the men in the flying craft
that their task was accomplished
Lower and lower the aeroplane cir
cled until she was within 10 feet of
the earth Then sliding along the
ground in cloud of dust stopped al
most upon the identical spot where
last September the fatal fall took
place. This time there was no fall,
the beautiful aeroplane was unmarried
and the two men stepped out, unhurt
and triumphant
Il was nervous at first" said Or
Vile. You know this was my first at
tempt with a passenger since last
year. Gradually the machine found
herself, however, and / felt as sure as
if had swung at the end of string,
with no such problem as direction or
elevation or speed to solve. | could
hear Lieut.. Lahm at first but the ter
rible racket of the motor soon deaden-
ed my ears and We abandoned at
tempts at conversation. | did not in
tend to land as abruptly as | did and
was trying some low flying; | mis-
Judged the elevation and before |
knew it | struck the ground | could
have remained up another '1our or so,
but there was no necessity