Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-04
Baltimore and Washington
for Aviation Contest.
COMMITTEES MEET TODAY
Assemblage of Promoters in the
Monumental City.
WRIGHTs' SCHOOL TO OPEN SOON
Arrangements at College Park Com
plete-Talk With Aviator-Bal-
loon Tests in Europe.

1t has been decided to raise 100000
as guarantee fund for the aviation car
nival in Washington and the work will
be started at meeting to be held in
Baltimore this afternoon. The gather
ing will be held at the rooms of the
Merchants and Travellers Association,
and the various subcommittee necessary
to push the camaign with the object of
securing the meet in Washington will be
appointed. These committees will also
arrange for a mass meeting Thursday
night, to be held at the chambers of the
city council. where 1t is expected there
will be present representatives from go
Baltimore organizations
The most important committee that will
be appointed will be that of finance, to
be presided over by Willard F. Burgess
This organization will raise $4,000 which
has been assigned as Baltimore's share.
There is already 5000 pledged in Balti-
more. and it is thought there will be no
trouble about raising the rest of the
money. Nothing has been done in this
line In Washington, and there has been
some talk among the members of the
Aero Club of relying on a congressional
appropriation. There is to be a commit
tee of two sent over from Baltimore to
confer with the Washinton members
about choosing a site for the meet. 1t is
believed these members will endeavor to
discourage the Washington men from
relying on Congress for funds.
Instruction School to Open.
Arrangements have been made at Col
lege Park for the arrival of Wilbur
Wright who will teach the army officers
to handle the Wright machine. Wilbur
Wright said in New York that he prob
ably would stay there until Wednesday Of
this week, after which he would come to
Washington. He is under contract with
the managers of the HudsonFulton cele-
bration to make certain flights there, but
as the weather has been too bad for fly
ing, neither he nor Glenn Curtiss has done
much up to date. They wish, however.
to make some satisfactory flights before
leaving for Washington.
1t is understood that Mr.. Wright will
been using at Governors Island and in
that case there will be two aeroplanes
at College Park, and If one of them is
put out of commission by an accident
there will be another to fall back on.
Wilbur Wright is not very partial to
newspaper interviews. but loosened up
Saturday to say that he and Orville con-
template writing a book as soon as they
get a chance putting their experience in
the development of mechanical flight into
by the general reader. He said that the
most of the flying being done in France
now was based on a lecture delivered In
Paris by a Frenchman who had been
present at the flights around Kittyhawk.
He said the French who were using the
rigid biplane with the box tail were on
the wrong track, and he did not think
that a practical machine could be built
without using the birdlike motion of the
wings characteristic of the Wright ma
oh for ,,ciy foiv ha1o in, he Qtr
Flight in Gale-Nix.
Mr.. Wright was asked whether he could
fly in a high wind. say one amounting to
a gale of eighty miles an hour. He said
that he thought the machine could be
handled in a wind Of this sort. but that he
did not propose to try. He said that he
and his brother were not acrObatS and
that they cared nothing for performing
sensational featS. They took the develop
ment of aviation very seriously, and figur-
ing that they have a number of years to
live yet, proposed to take no chances, but
would work along slowly as they had COM
menced.
Considerable interest has been expressed
here over the achievement of OrviEe
Wright in flying 1.60O feet high at Berlin.
While no official confirmation of this re-
port has been received, it is generally as
sumed to be true. 1t also bears out some
of the remarks made by members Of the
Wright family when they were here that
Orville was the one of the two brothers
who would take the biggest chances in OPP
Grating a machine in the air.
The report is of particular interest to
the army and navy people, owing to the
fact that 1t assures the ability of an aero
plane to get completely out of range OF
gunfire from the earth.
Beyond Ordinary Range.
1t is pointed out that at 1000 feet an
aeroplane offers as small target as a
box kite and in addition to that when 1t
is travelling forty miles an hour 1t would
be absolutely impossible to hit it either
with rifle or with shrapnel fire. This
will insure the ability of an aeroplane to
operate either over an army or a hostile
fleet with absolute safety to the aviator.
Reckoning the cost of an aeroplane at
5000. which 1t is thought will be fairly
high when aeroplanes become common. a
fleet of 100 of them could be sent after
an attacking fleet, and as each of them
could carry about 400 pounds of high eX-
plosives, it would be remarkable If they
could not disable two or three ten-million-
dollar battleships out of an attacking fleet
at total expense of about 100000 even
assuming that none of the aeroplan mes re-
turned safely.
Long Distance Balloon Test.
Interest In lons-distance balloon flights
has become rather slack in comparison
with endurance flights and races between
heavier-than-air machines, but there is
still considerable interest in the big race
for the Gordon-Bennett cup which was
started from Zurich, Switzerland, yester-
day. II was an ideal day and crowd OF
over 100000 people watched the seventeen
balloons get into the air. There WAS a
southwest wind blowing which promised
to carry the contestants over southern
Russia and make the race both long and
interesting.
The only American representative was
Edgar w. Mix. who piloted the America
III. He carried provisions for three DAYS
and discarded heavy clothing In favor OF
additional ballast. All of the other coun.
tries OF Europe are represented in the
race. but tho chances of America are
ranked uIIite high