Evening star., 1928-12-16
KILL DEVIL HILL FLIGHT OF WRIGHT BROTHERS
OPENED FIRST CHAPTER OF AVIATION HISTORY
AT KITTY HAWK Is YEARS AGO TOMORROW
Camp on North Carolina
SeaShore Recalled on
Anniversary.
DEFIED 27-MILE WIND
Coast Guard Life-Savers
Gave Aid When Aero Was
Ready to Hop.


25 years ago tomorrow on chill, wind
swept sandy waste on the North Caro-
lima coast near Kitty Hawk, where two
young Ohio bicycle manufacturers had
established camp to experiment in
the virgin field Of human flight.
During the night of December 16,
1903, a strong, cold wind blew from the
North, and on the morning of the 18th
the puddles of water standing in holIows
around the camp from recent rains
were covered with ice Two wooden
shacks, braced against the winds with
wooden snoring. one Of them forming
the first airplane hangar in history,
stood alone in the wide expanse of the
Carolin sand dune country.
From one of the shacks the two
young men--the Wright brothers, Or
vile and Wilbur, of Dayton, Ohio
stepped out into the chill of the morn
ing and pesred at the skies anxiously
With their instruments they checked
the velocity of the wind, and found 1t
blowing from % to 81 miles per hour
Deciding it would die down, they again
went inside --.' ~
At 10 O'Clock, however, finding the
wind had not abated, they hung out a
signal, as agreed upon, to notify the
men of a nearby Coast Guard life
saving station of their intention to
attempt what NJ man in history had
achieved fight in a man-carrying,
heav1er-than-air, power-driven air
plane.
The brothers dragged out a peculiar
wooden track, which they laid on a
smooth stretch of ground about 100 feet
north OF the hangar. The winds were
bitter, and they stopped at intervals to
go into their living shack and warm UP
ever hot fire burning in an impro-
viSed stove made of a large carbide can.
Five Others Join Them.
BY the time they had the track laid
TO their satisfaction the two brothers
! mad been joined by five men, attracted
by their Signal-John T. Daniels, w. S.
Dough and A. D. Etheridge, members
of the Kill Devil Life-Saving Station;
w. G. Brinkley of Mantee and John
Ward, boy from Nags Head, NJ c. A
general invitation had been extended to
the people of the vicinity, but these five
were the only ones who responded and
witnessed the beginning of mans con-
quest of the air
With their hand anemometer the
| Wright brothers again measured the
velocity of the wind, which by now was
blowing "a to 81 miles per hour. The
records of the United States Weather
Bureau station at Killy Hawk between
! lO:5U and IL O'Clock that morning. when
| the irSt flights were made, showed a
| wir-d velocity averaging 81 miles per
hour when the first flight was made
and "a miles at the time of the final
flight of the day.
With all the knowledge and skill
acquired in thousands of flights in the
last 10 years" said Orville Wright in
his own account of that flight, first
published in December. 1918, in Flying,
Il. would hardly think today of making
my first flight on a strange machine in
27-mile wind, even if knew that the
machine had already been flown and
was safe. After these years of expert
ence look with amazement upon our
| audacity in attempting flights with a
new and untried machine under such
circumstances.
'Yet faith in our calculations and the
design Of the first machine. based upon
our tables of air pressures, secured by
months Of careful laboratory work, and
confidence in our system of control, de-
veloped by three years of actual expert
enceS IN balancing gliderS in the air,
had convinced us that the machine was
capable Of lifting and maintaining it.
self In the air, and that with a little
practice it could be safely fown'
The brothers had tossed coin to
decide who was to have the honor of
/ the first attempt. Wilbur, having won
ard used his turn in an unsuccessful
attempt on December IA, Orville took
! h to- %Ioos,-
4 little l2-horSepoWer gasoline motor a
few minutes to warm 1t up and then
cut the wire holding the machine to
the track
The plane lurched and moved for
ward On the track into the wind. Will
bur ran at the side of the machine.
holding 1t by the wing to balance it on
the track, and because of the strong
head wind was able to stay with it
until it lifted from the track after a
40-foot run. One of the life-saving
crew snapped camera just as the
machine reached the end OF the track
ard rose to height of about feet.
The plane, now in full flight, moved
rapidly forward into enduring fame.
The course of the flight was exceed
ingly erratic, partly because Of the
irregularity of the air and partly be-
cause OF lack Of experience in handling
the machine. The control of the front
trudder was difficult, Orville explained.
because it was balanced too near the
center, which gave it a tendency to
turn itself when once started, so that
1t turned too far on one side and then
too far on the others.
AS a result the machine would rise
suddenly to about 10 feet and then as
suddenly dart for the ground. One of
1 orsl
chine was a little more than 100 feet
from the end of the track, or l2O feet
from where it rose into the air, abruptly
ended the flight.
First Flight in History.
The flight had lasted but IL seconds.
but it was the first in the history of
the world in which q machine carving
a man had raised itself by its own
power into the air in full flight, sailed
forward without reduction of speed and
landed again at a point as high as that
| from which it had started. 1t was the
birth of aviation.
The machine was undamaged, and
with the aid CT the little handful of
spectators the elated brothers carried
1t back to the track and prepared for
another flight The party, however,
was chilled by the wind, and before
attempting another fight all went into
the building to warm up.
Johnny Ward, seeing under the
table a box filled, with eggs" Orville
wrote in his description of the events
Of that memorable day, asked one of
the station men where we got SO many
Of them. The people of the neighbor-
hood eke out bare existence by catch
ing fish during the short fishing season,
ard their supplies of other articles of
food are limited. He had probably
never seen so many eggs at Cne timo
in his whole life. The one addressed
jokingly asked him whether he hadn't
noticed the small hen running about
the outside of the building.