Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-07-09
CARRIED TWO PASSENGERS
Neither Was Injured, But Machine
Was Badly Damaged.
FLIGHTS MADE FROM FIELD
Lieuts. Milling and Arnold Display
Sh1l-Latter Plays Hide and
Seek Among Clouds.

'Twenty-th three" was apparently toe
much for the Burgess Wright aeroplane
that was intended to be delivered to the
government at College Park yesterday
afternoon. The machine bearing the hoo
doc number was smashed up after q
fight of three minutes and before it
had technically passed into the possession
Of the United States. Lieut.. Thomas
Milling and w. Startling Burgess were
aboard the craft when the crash came.
Neither Of them was hurt. as the fall
Of the machine was only a little more
than twenty feet. but the aeroplane was
almost q complete wreck and another
will have to be delivered to the govern
ment.
The machine was q new one intended
for the government. 1t was Of the same
type as the one In which Harry Atwood
Is making his much-delayed trip from
Boston to Washington. 1t was in the
Park yesterday and was taken out. as
sembled. flown and wrecked between 3
and o'clock.
Quickly Made Ready for Service.
w Startling Burgess and Mrs. Burgess
came to Washington to svperintend turn
ing the machine over to the government.
1t was in one OF the new type OF end
door freight cars that have been de-
veloped for the benefit of flying machine
and motor car owners and had been
shipped assembled except for the tail
and control connections. The speed with
which 1t was detrained and made ready
for flight was in striking contrast to the
days of the early Wright machines at
Fort Myer, when machine always TOOK
at least two weeks to assemble.
The machine Is practically duplicate
of the Wright biplane that is now at
College Park, it being simply a Wright
machine, built under a license by dif-
ferent company. The most noticeable OF
the few small differences between the
two Is the color Of the paint. which is
a little different shade Of gray.
Makes Practice Flight.
While the new machine was being as
sembled Lieut. Arnold took flight OF
fifteen minutes in the old airship. 1t was
merely practice flight. and did not carry
him off the field nor higher than 800 feet.
Soon after he came down the Burgess
Wright was ready for her trial flight
Startling Burgess, the aviator. took with
him as a passenger Lieut. Milling. one OF
the army aviators. The flight was very
short, the machine being In the air only
three minutes. No great height was at
tempted, and at the end Of that time
something happened to the engine. 1t
slowed down and the machine dropped.
1t was too close to the ground for
safe turn, but the landing ground was
bad and Mr.. Burgess tried to make the
turn to get over a better spot There
was a wind that skidded the machine,
and she came down with crash. break
ing three Of the uprights between the
main planes and wrecking the landing
gear
Spectators hurried out to the scene of
the wreck and the machine was put on
a truck and run into the hangar for
the night. Just what was the matter
with the engine is question. Possibly
1T was due to cinders. the engine not
having been very carefully covered
when 1t was shipped.
Mr.. Burgess said after the accident
that there would be but little delay in
delivering another machine to the gov
ernment, as he had three in the factory
practically completed and that one Of
these would be sent to Washington.
Two Flights in Forenoon.
There were two flights by the army
aviators during the forenoon. Lieut..
Milling took up Lieut.. Kirkland as 3
passenger and Lieut. Arnold reached
the highest altitude OF the day. going
up 1900 feet. This was a rather spec
tacular flight to observers. as the
clouds were within 1000 feet OF the
ground and the aeroplane appeared
and disappeared a number of times,
weaving in and out among the cloud
banks like a shuttle in loom.
There are two Curtiss machines on
their way to the park, one from Ham
mondsport and the other from San An
tonic. They probably will be delivered
within q week.