Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1910-11-17
INVENTORS STRIVE
NAVIGATION
->S
Achievements of Filters at Bel
mont Park Meet Demonstrate
Tremendous Advance
Made In Six Years.
BY LOVE.

more convincing to see a man
fly than to read about his flight. A
very few years ago l was n Of the
skeptics who laughed at the notion
that man could learn to fly. Those of
us who laughed were not i~nexcusable.
Men have trodden this old globe for
many centuries, always eager to aban-
don the sod at will and aviate into the
azure. Thousands and thousands have
attempted to contrive some sort of con-
traption capable Of taking them up
into the empyrean, circling around in
the cerulean and bringing them back
to terra firma safe, sound and sane.
Up to a very few years ago all such
attempts were failures, and that's why
we laughed.
But now, thanks most largely to the
two assiduous sons of Bishop Wright
of Ohio. we laugh no longer. We ever
pay respectful tribute Of memory to
ancient Icarus, who made wings of
wax. and to modern Darius Green.
who made his Of "luther or suthin or
other" Icarus and Darius failed. Or
LIN Stllu "llDul SuSSSCutu. Liz "Ollu
moves and men fly. Bird-like they
aviate in machines with wings and
tails that sweep and soar and coast
and glide swiftly and gracefully.
Nearly Two Mile Climb.
Only a few days ago Ralph John
stone of Kansas City, at the Belmont
park aviation meet on Long Island,
scared lark-like in a biplane nearly
two miles up into the sky, so far above
the earth that his machine was lost
to view in a cloudless atmosphere.
tombstone climbed up the air ladder
9,714 feet, breaking by 52S feet the
worlds record for altitude. He was
trying for 10000 feet. but quit 2S6
feet short of his ambition only because
his motor quit first. At the same time
and place j. Armstrong Drexel climb.
ed 1913 feet in a monoplane and came
down then because he had q dinner
engagement at Sherry's and he was
getting sick at the stomach. A man
with a sick stomach is not calculated
to enjoy his dinner. so we readily en-
cuse Mr.. DreXel for descending when
he did.
Wilbur Wright. standing on the
ground. was the only spectator of
Johnstone's flight who was disappoint-
ed. The biplane will go higher than
10000 feet before long, l hope" said
Wizard Wilbur, with confidence born
of expert knowledge. And all of us
hope it will and that it's daring aviator
Will descend as safely as did John
stone and, like him, call not in vain for
a bowl of hot soup and a plate of
beans.
Let us bark back for a into
the almost ancient history of aero
planning. Two years ago Thomas r.
MacMechen, al enthusiastic young St.
Louis newspaper man who believed in
aviation, brought to New York Henri
Farman, French aviator and maker Of
aeroplanes. Mr.. MacMechen with as
soc1ates agreed to pay M. Farman a
large round sum for the performance
OF aviation stunts, expecting sufficient
gate receipts to pay the piper and have
a grub stake left.
Reference to newspaper files cover
Ing those days will show that brother
journalists had fun with MacMechen-
those wise guys Of journalism who in
habit the metropolis. Some of their
u perhaps was justified, for as Il
matter of fact M. Farman, loudly trum-
peted and press ACCENTED into American
renown, failed to do any flying that
was worth mentioning twice in the
same century. His machine crawled
along the ground like a bug that had
been stepped on by a beast. The jump
Ing frog Of Calaveras county, which
was loaded to the muzzle with shot,
did about as much jumping as Far
mans biplane did flying. Farman was
disguised. So vas everybody else.
Rapid Progress In a Year.
Two years ago the art Of aviation
was not far enough advanced to in
sure a successful exhibition of flying.
For that matter, II year ago there
wasn't very much thrill in the perform
ances Of aviators. Glenn H. Curtiss,
to be sure, had won the Bennett cup
In hi first international race at Rheims
for speed. But Curtiss disappointed
hundreds of thousands of spectators
when he failed to fly more than a few
rect at a time as the star attraction in
connection with the St. Louis centen-
nial celebration in October, 1909. He
was still a trife shaky on his wings,
so to speak. Yet last June this same
Curtiss thrilled the world by flying
from Albany to New York with only
one landing en- route. In the interval
he had acquired his wing control. He
was no longer an accident in aviation.
He was an adept.
In the Curtiss biplane plant at Ham
mondsport, N. Y; in the Wright b.
plane factory at Dayton. O., in the
Bleriot m%onoplane works abroad and In
other experiment shops the tireless
workers have wrought wonders in the
Improvement Of the aeroplane during
| the past tWelyemOnth. While tha mn.