Evening star., 1917-10-14
Copyright. 1917. y Frank G. Carpenter,

Copyright, 1917 ~ Frank G. Carpenter.)
BUFFALO, N. Y.
have Just returned from the Curtiss
aviation field, where I watched some OF
the great flying machines which are to
be used in our war in Europe. moving
about through the air. 1 have examined
the machines as they sat on the ground
and have even taken a flight in one Of
the two-seated biplane scouts designed
for spying upon the enemy and for
making Photographic maps of their
trenches for the use Of our army.
But before I describe my experience
Of today want to say a word about my
first sight Of an engine flying about
through the sky. 1t was just twenty
one years ago, on an island In the Po-
tomac river not far from Washington
1 had gone there at the Invitation Of DR..
Samuel Langley who had just COM
pleted his invention of the first machine
that actually few. Rumors of the dis
covery had already been published, but
he had selected me to give the first de-
scription of the flight to the newspa-
pers. We went alone and waited for
three days at the clubhouse on the
island down the Potomac in order to
get the best air conditions to make the
test.
The machine, which was made chiefly
of steel and weighed only about as
much four year old boy, was
moved by little steam engine. 1t was
launched from a starting stage. and 1t
flew from the island for distance al
most great as the length of Pennsyl-
vania avenue between the Treasury and
the Capitol. 1t rose into the air and
few straight across the Potomac to-
ward the woods and then turned and
went up the river for short distance.
Then, all the water in the boiler having
been converted into steam, Its motive
power was gone and it dropped gently
down upon the earth.
That machine was the father of the
great aviation industry of today. 1t
proved the success of the principles Of
artificial flight. and from it was de-
veloped the man-carrying machine
which. aided by Congress, DR.. Langley
completed in 1903. Every one knows
the tragic story of that machine.
The aviator who attempted to fly 1t was
Mr.. c. NJ. Manley, who Is now one OF the
engineers of the Curtiss aeroplane STAFF,
and it was due only to bad weather
conditions and a defect in the launch
ing that the machine did not leave the
starting stage. The story went out that
it failure The newspapers ridi-
culed Langley and the blow to his SEN
sitive nature was such that 1t caused
his death. The machine had been In
jured in the starting. and it was not
rebuilt and tested until he had passed
away. Indeed. it was not until 1914 that
the identical machine was taken TO
Hammondsport and successfully flown
by Mr.. Glenn H. Curtiss In the mean
time. other inventors had been working
along the lines of the discoveries made
by DR.. Langley, and the future success
= Axra@ 1t
The machine l saw on the Potomac
compares to those which are now fight
ing over the battlefields of Europe as
fly to an eagle. 1t weighed less than
fifty pounds and ii flew three-quarters
of mile in one and three-fourthS min
utes. The machine in which / rode
through the skies today weighs almost
a ton. and it flies through the air at
seventy miles an hour AS 1t rested
upon the ground. it looked like some
gigantic live thing from another planet.
Using "A Gulliver comparison. 1t made
me think of a Brobdignagian bug, ready
to attack my Lilliputian self, and when
in action this impression became more
vivid than ever. AS 1t rested upon the
ground it made me think OF a fsh with
wings. and when half mile In the air.
with the sun shining upon IL, II looked
like a dragon-fy which turned 10 SllVer
as the rays flashed upon Its surface.
| despair OF making you see the aerial
monster and of giving you i've con-
ceptiou of how one feels whiie IL car
ries you about through the clouds with
the earth spread out like map Tar be-
low.
The best idea Of it. perhaps. is as a
gigantic flying fish. The fish upon the
ground rests upon two wheels with
cushioned rubber tires. They are not
as large as the front wheels or the
smaller of our automobiles ana they
raise the body and the head OF the
fish SO that Il seems to be supported
upon them and on the tail The head
of the nsh contains the engine hidden
inside the shell. and in front OF tnis,
attached to the nose. as 1t were; Is .ne
propeller This is long pIaoe tna'
extends out like two horns. which.
when the machine is in action. ny
around at the rate Of fourteen hundred
times a minute or twenty-tnree I.neS
second. They make a noise IKE the
buzxing Of all the locusts OF Egypt