Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1911-08-17
AERoPLANE WILL
RACE FAST AUTO
WEST MICHIGAN STATE FAIR
MANAGEMENT HAS SECURED
A THRILLER FOR THIS
FALLS EXPOSITION.
WILL CARRY A PASSENGER
Big Wright Plane Such as the
Army Uses Will Be the Gen.
ter of Interest at Grand
Rapids.

An aeroplane racing against one OF
the fastest automobiles and carrying
a passenger, each day, is the big thrill
the management of the West Michi-
gan State Fair has prepared for the
thousands who will attend 1t this
year September IL to 10.
The aeroplane is the first inven-
ton of man to successfully navigate
the atmosphere regardless of the di-
rection of the wind and without the
aid of gas or hot air. Every day the
newspapers are filled with the thrill
ing acts of the man birds" some OF
whom have risen thousands Of feet
into the air, even crossing the Alps
and Pyrennes, and others of whom
have flown hundreds of miles at
rate of 100 miles an hour.
The wonderful power of these great
birds, with their great whirring mo-
tors and broad white wings, is fasci-
mating everybody and the feats per
formed are causing the world to gasp
each day.
At the forefront in America OF
aeroplane builders are the Wright
brothers, the inventors of the aero
plane, who were making successful
flights around their own home and
unknown to anybody while others
were experimenting with the dirigible
gas balloons. So successful have
these silent brothers been in their
work that the government is using
- hot in adj
cation of army officers and in expert
menting with the machines to find out
their true value in time of war. 1t
is one of the Wright machines that
the people of Western Michigan will
see at the big Grand Rapids exposi-
ton this fall. Other machines might
have been secured at a less cost but il
has not been the policy of the man
agement of the West Michigan State
Fair to give their patrons cheap
things, so when they decided upon an
aeroplane it was the very best in the
business that was secured.
The great man-carrying bird will be
housed in the enclosure within the
race track. Here everybody will have
an opportunity to inspect it at rest.
From here it will ascend, fly out over
the river around the track, up into
the air until il becomes mere speck,
speed past the grandstand with it's
great propellers whirring and perform
all those wonderful evolutions which
since long before the days of the
lamented Darius Green have foiled
the genius of man-those evolutions
which have caused multitudes to gasp
in awe and brought death to dozens
of daring aviators.
But this is not the best of what has
been prepared The contract which
Secretary r. d. Conger has signed
with the Wright Brothers provides
that each day a passenger to be Sc
lected by the management of the fair,
shall be taken up in the aeroplane
Who this shall be will be announced
daily and some half dozen persons
who attend the fair are to receive
thrills such as they never felt before
1t is to be something new in Michi-
gan and the lucky persons chosen for
the passengers will have something to
tell about for the rest Of their days.
On one day the plane is to race
with an automobile. For this pur-
pose an especially fast car will be
chosen and above it the great man
carrying bird will whiz around the
track, each believing in its struggle
to Guido the other. Thus will the two
fastest and most marvellous inventions
of man be seen in a mad race for
supremacy
This will be the greatest feature
Michigan will boast this year and II
can only be seen at Grand Rapids
during the week of September II to
Is at the West Michigan State Fair
grounds.