The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-08-19
ORVILLE WRIGHT, KING OF BIRD-MEN,
 IS 43 TODAY

Orvflle Wright, the junior of the two immortal brothers who gave to the world a new means of transpor- tation and sport in time of peace and a new engine of destruction in war. was born in Dayton, O.. forty three years ago today. The great aeroplane, fleets of France. Germany. Russia. Italy, Austria, Great Britain. the United States and other nations all have as their parent. the crude little flying machine with which Wilbur and Orville Wright made their first successful tests at Kitty Hawk, N. C., only 8 little over 9 decade ago. The Wright invention was first used in actual warfare during the war be-. tween Italy and Turkey. and the Ital- ian bird-nnen performed suseful ser vice in spying out the country of the enemy. Capt. Monte, of the Italian army, was wounded by army sharp shooters in Tripo1i, but recovered, and the first army aviator to meet death in the performance of duty in time of war was Capt. Popoff. of the Bu1-. garian army. who was killed by a shrapnel shel1 while flying over Adri- anople in November. 1s12 About a month later another Bulgarian avfa-= tor. Dr. Jules Constantine, was. killed by rifle fire at Tohata1dja.
 When Orville Wright and his late brother were making their initial ex- periments with heavier-than-a -aAr fly ing machines, the thought of the uti1- ity of their invention in warfare was far from their thoughts. Soon after I they made their successful long dis tanee test at Dayton in 1905 the. mil itary ard naval authorities of the great powers began to give serious consideration to the possibilities Of l military flying machipes. France took the lead in the building of aero planes for the army. but Germany, Russia, Great Bsitain and other na- tfons soon followed her example. The brothers were awarded gold medaIs by the French Academy of Sciences five years ago.s
 It was not until 1912 that the n1ili- tary authorities began to realize fully the terribly destructive uses to which aeroplanes might be put in time of war. The Michelin bomb dropping contest. held in France in that year, was an impressive demonstrations Nine military and three civilian avia- tors took part in the contest. which was won by R. E. Scott, first lieu tenant of the United States coast ar tfIlery, whose bomb-dropping appa- ratus was mounted On a Wright bi- plane. He placed eight out of hfteen bombs in the target from a height of 2.64O feet and twelve out of fifteen bombs from a height of 765 feet. Lieut.. Scott was the first man in the world to make tests In scientific bomb dropping from an aeroplane, having carried out a successful series of tests at College Park. Md, in 1911, on a Wright machine.
 Orville Wright was from the first the aerial sexperimenter of the twain. He made the experimental flights on all the new machines before permit ting other aviators to use them. Of late he has devoted much of his at tention to Improvements in his inven- ton. of which the automatic stabi1iz-
 Ter for aeroplanes is among the most important. This stabiHzer made his
 hydro-aer oplane especially adapted
 to being carried aboard war vessels. 1 MT. Wright firmly believes that in fthe course of time flying machines
 will be so perfected that they will not
 only have many and varied uses in
 time Of peace, but that their. death
 dealing and destructive capacities will
 be so largely increased as to make
 war unthinkable.
 BOSTON TO NEW YORK