Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-03-09

dollar order was little for a million dollar
corporation, and the Wrights were forced to
hawk their products through Europe.
Recently they sold two hydroaeroplanes to
Washington But it is extremely doubtful
if from January l, 1912, they have turned
out more than fifteen machines. An en-
ployee of the company told me that their
profits from selling aeroplanes in 1912 did
not come to over fifty-seven thousand dol
lars. Indeed, he doubts if the sum was that
high.
AND the story of the Glenn H. Curtiss
n Company is the same. Meeting the
same conditions as the Wrights, the factory
at Hammondsport has turned over little
from the sale of machines. Only by the five
hundred thousand dollars that they were
fortunate in taking from the exhibition field
were they able to keep going on big scale.
Encouraged only slightly by the govern
ment ,-nothing beyond establishing an
army school at San Diego and buying few
hydroaeroplanes- too were forced into
Europe. Here they met better reception.
Although supporting their own manufactur-
ers, Germany, France, and Russia each
bought the Curtiss products. Still, it was
doubtful if from the sale of their machines
the Curtiss company made over fifteen thou
sand dollars in 1912. Like the Wrights, the
exhibition game kept heavy losses off their
books
So with the Burgess Company & Curtis
of Marblehead. ]. Startling Burgess,
wealthy and widely known yacht designer
and shipbuilder, became inoculated chats
the only world with aviation. Deciding that
there was a fortune in the new field, Burgess
gave up profitable shipyard and became a
biplane manufacturer. Today his trends
say he's sorry he did. The Marblehead con-
Germ, under license from the Wrights, makes
a machine of Burgess own design. Experts
have pronounced the workmanship to be the
best in the country STILL Burgess cannot
find buyers, and is said to be having hard
time breaking even. He made about twelve
machines in 1912, among them fifteen thou
sand-dollar Bennett Cup racer. Beyond
that the company did little.
Seven hundred and fifty aeroplanes were
built last year in this country by big con-
Germs and by individuals. Out of this num-
Der not more than two hundred were made
by competent manufacturers. OF such there
are only twelve, including the Wrlghts, Cur
tiss, the Burgess Company & Curtis, the
Benoist Aircraft Company, the Molsant
Aviation Company and half dozen smaller
concerns. The twelve produced one hundred
and seventy-four machines, fifty for
private use, one hundred and five for exhibit
ton purposes, eleven for governments The
rest of the American output-ive hundred
and seventy-six machines-were the prod
ucts of crack-brained, backyard builders,
good for nothing unless it be death.
A prominent Wall Street man lost ninety
thousand dollars by playing @angel' to
fourteen-months-o factory. Another, a
well known Central American banker,
dropped fifty thousand dollars. John Barry
Ryan, son of hard-headed, business soaked
father, lost thirty thousand dollars on an
aviation promotion and publication to
further its interests. Then Ryan withdrew
to the fields of level business.
Such is the situation in America,-failure
because the mechanical developments of the
aeroplane have SO far outstripped the COM
mercial development.
Nov let us glance at the situation in
~ Europe / have just looked over the
most recent reports of the Bleriot and Gnome
Companies In 1910, on paid up capital
of two hundred and sixty thousand dollars
the Bleriot people cleared sixty thousand
eight hundred dollars on the sale of machines
alone A year later the same concern, with
the same capitalization small by -compari-
son to the million-dollar Wrights-netted
eighty thousand dollars. This from manu-
featuring, not from exhibiting. And the
Gnome concern, with a capital of two hun