The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-07-27
Aviator Flies for Benefit of
 President Taft
ONE MORE DAY FOR TESTS
Great Crowd Assemblies To See Trial Flights Made, But Wind Is Too Strong and They Are
 Again Postponed.

Washington, July 26-While Orville Wright did make a two and half minute flight under very adverse conditions with his aeroplane at Fort Myer tonight. the occasion by reason of the presence of President Taft and a brilliant assemblage of Washington official life and an im- mense crowd of mere people, ultimate consumers as one witty congressman described them-bore an air more social than aeronautic.
 Everybody had expected Wright to make today the first of his official tests of the aeroplane-the so-called endurance test" of an hour in the air with a pas senger-and nobody had forgotten that the last time he attempted this feat only ten months ago it cost the life of Lieu tenant Selfridge of the signal corps and a broken thigh and ribs for Wright him self. That was the main reason for the vast crowd and beneath the gaiety and the brilliancy of the occasion lay a univer- sal undertone of apprehension, grim and tense
 A stiff wind blowing in puffs and at a velocity as high at times as 20 miles an hour. caused the postponement of the expected trial and all that Wright att tempted was brief flight without a pas senger in order to show the President that the aeroplane really could fly.
 With President Taft flanl1ed on either side by Speaker Cannon and Senator All drich looking on from tent which had been erected for him. the machine was trundled to the foot of the starting der rick in the center of the drill field and poised on the monorail, preparatory to the start.
 Heretofore it has been the unvarying practice of Orville Wright when giving exhibition or test flights at Fort Myer to use a 9O-foot derrick and weights to propel his aeroplane into the air. To- day, however, he discarded this artificial means of gaining his initial impetus and scared easily and gracefully from the monorail by aid of the motors own power
 President Taft, accompanied by Senator Bourne and Capt. Ar/hibald Butt, his military aide, was among the first to visit the Wrights in their workshop be- fore the flight. Shortly afterward Am bassador and Madame Jusserand and MT. and Mrs. Nicholas Longworth joined them. The two brothers today made known to the French ambassador their satisfaction at having been decorated by the French government with the cross of the Legion of Honor. Others who crowded in to pay their respects to the two aeroplanists were Secretary of War Dickinson, Postmaster General Hitchcock, Lieut.. Gen Nelson A. Miles and Attorney General Wickersham
 Orville Wright expressed the hope of being able to undergo the government test for both endurance and speed tomor- row The time limit for the official tests expires Wednesday.
 The notable thing about the flight to- day was that it embodied the first devi- ation from the Wrights' hitherto unvary- ing rule of obeying their own judgment rather than anybody's curiosity or plead ings. What was refused, notwithstand- ing the request of King Edward and King Alfonso of Spain, was done without special request for the pleasure of the President of the United States.