The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-07-08
Arthur Ruhl in Golfers.
"HE WRIGHT brothers flying ma
chine represents now so many DIFF

chine represents now so many dl1-
L ficulties solved that 1t seems hard
ly Just to its inventors to speak also
of a difficult" art. All sorts of peo-
pie, with almost no instruction and lit
tie Intelligent understanding of what they
are doing, are more or less successfully
| Tapping about in these days. The obvious
dangers and obstacles have been refined
away. And here you have machine
light enough to carry with perfect safety
| its powerful engine and two or-where
there a convenient place for them-even
| more passengers; SO stout and rigid tha'
a man can tramp all over it as 1t stands
on the ground. and yet so delicately joint
ed and controlled that light pull on a
single lever will dip one wing. raise
the other and turn vertical tail-ruoaei
about to give the necessary balancing
pull with almost the instructive adapt
ability of a birds wings and feathers; q
machine which, travelling as fast as an
express train, can suddenly be banked
and turned about almost on Its tall. New
ertheless II anybody thinks there isn't
enough left to make flying interesting
he has but to get somebody to take him
I'M In the air few hundred feet ano
there, with the engine laundering be-
| hind his ears and the tears running down
| his cheeks and the wind Tapping his
trouser legs above that chasnl of empty
air, wonder just what he would do when
| the great bird strikes on of those creepy
air currents which come from nowhere
and suddenly lift and fling planes, pro-
pellsrs. engine. men and all as II they
were SO much smoke.
you're elected" said Orville, and
climbed In.
The passengers seat in the Wright
machine is in the middle. The engine Is
ut his right. and the driver at his left
so that the balance Is the same whether
an extra man is carried or not You 81
on a small wooden seat with back
grasp one of the uprights with your righ'
hand and rest your feet on a cross-bar
Although not fastened in, one Is prett,
safely Gagged by a guy-wire, which passes
diagonally across and close to one
chest.
The engines began their deafeninf
clamor-the passenger gets the worst o.
the noise because it IL directly behind MI
ears-the big bird shook and throbbed
and then Orville leaned down, released
the trigger and let her go.
The first sensation as you shoot dowi
the rail and then at the end OF II up IL
the air is like a sort Of sublimated TO
boesaning-like those dreams In which
one falls from a tremendous height ant
lust before hitting the ground sails III
and dreamily away. 1t is exciting an'
delightful. The Wright's use starting
rail at Dayton because the field Is prett!
bummocky for wheels. Although not a
oil necessary and trifle less sporting
than wheels, It naturally provides
smoother and swifter start.
lust befoe the machine-going perhaps
at rate of 80 miles an hour by tina
t,me-reaches the end of the rail, TIN
front rudder planes are tilted slight!
upward. Trifling as the detection seems
and hard to detect even, when one 1
standing alongside. the big bird respond
and rises as II alive. The rudders ar
: not, as one might suppose, kept at tn
same angle and this Is true whether tn
machine is climbing or coming down. Al
aeropiane is, SO to speak. nudged up o
down. The direction Is changed by I
change in the rudder, and then the rud
der is brought back to normal and KEEP
there until another change is needed. Q
course, as regular bird-man, like eithe
Of the wrights. files. all these little mo
tions become almost as instructive an
merged into each other as mans mo
tons are in walking or in steering bI
cycle.
Up we few, with occasional bounds
on an ascending spiral until the littl
spectators. craning their necks epwart
and the yellow shed and the brown cat
tie lay 800 feet or more below. It wa
difficult to keep any intelligent iden q
our rate, Of sDssd Ground, trees build