Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1911-10-04

During recent years DallOOn1ng has
been revived as a rich mans sport,
and there have been several tnterna-
tional meets at which prizes were
awarded for distance and duration
flight
DIrigible Balloons.
The efforts to construct an airship
subject to control has been a long and
persistent one, but the necessarily
enormous bulk of gas balloons has
been a discouraging obstacle. Such
a tremendous surface presented to the
wind more than offsets the power of
the rudder to control, except in COM
parative calm, and the invariable dis
aster which has overtaken the most
elaborate and expensive attempts
those of Count Zeppelin of Germany
presumably will discourage further eff
fort along this line and concentrate
inventive genius upon the aeroplane.
The dirigible balloon, however, Is by
no means a complete failure.
The ordinary balloon retains the
pear-shape of the original, but the
dirigible is elongated or cigar-shaped
and braced along the sides to give 1t
stability. The control is gained from
a rudder extending from the sus-
pended car, which contains an electric
or gasoline motor. Walter Wellman's
fruttless attempt to reach the north
pole and later to cross the Atlantic
were among the interesting but gigan-
tic failures of the dirigible balloon.
The Flying Machine.
Genuine aerial navigation, or indie
pendent flight as distinguished from
aimless floating In the air, really had
it's birth when men abandoned the
balloon idea and sought to mimic the
birds. Otto Lilienthal in Germany.
Hiram Maxim in England and Samuel
P. Langley in the United States ex-
perimented and constructed machines
with planes and wings and rudders,
but their success was inconsiderable,
for their machines were either too
heavy or too frail.
Different inventors constructed
winged machines. large and small,
light and heavy, but the most they ac-
complished were short and uncertain
flights or glides from elevated starting
places. Finally in 1903 Octave Chanute
began to attract attention with his
long glides among the sand dunes In
the vicinity of Chicago, but his ma
chine had no motive power and was
never anything more than play
thing
IN Dayton, o. two brothers named
Wright, bicycle repairers, had been
experimenting with planes. Chanute
turned over to them all his ideas and
lem of equilibrium. In 1908 the
Wrights took machine to Kitty
Hawk, N. c., and on December II,
after several trials and carrying Will
bur Wright, it left the rails on which
it gained its momentum and flew 825
feet in SO seconds-tne first actual
flight by man in an aeroplane.
Since then the Wrights have re-
manned prominent in the work OF air
navigation and their names must al
ways take front rank in any history of
aerial flight
1t would require many columns
merely to mention the marvels per-
formed by nearly 5000 aviators who
have flown during the past three years.
Record after record has been broken,
wonder has piled on wonder with be-
wildering swiftness, until today the
people are not surprised at any feat
which the birdmen may perform. Dur
ing this brief period the progress has
been truly staggering and the last IL
months have been richer in achieve
ment than any preceding similar Pc
riod. Such names as Santos-Dumont,
Glenn H. Curtiss. Charles K. Hamil-
ton, Louis Paulhan, James G. (Bud)
Mars, Grahame-White, Walter Brook
ms, Hubert Latham, Louis Bleriot,
Count Jacques de Lesseps, Stewart
Rolls, John B. Moissant, j. Armstrong
Drexel, Eugene B. Ely, Alfred Lee
Blanc, Louis Delagrange, Henry Farm
ham, ]. A d. McCurdy, Eugene La
febvre, Clifford Harmon, Ralph John
stone, Archie Hoxsey, Lincoln Beachey,
Harry A. Atwood and host OF others
are familiar to all.
Distance to these birdmen is limited
only by the amount of fuel they can
carry.
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