Evening star., 1928-12-17
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
The Capital reminisced today over
the Is years of heavier-than-air flying
as the Wright brothers, one of them
| now dead, were being honored at Kitty
Hawk, N. c., where the first airplane
flight was made.
Airminded people recalled the days
of little more than 20 years ago when
the two young bicycle shop operators OF
DAYTON, Ohio, came to Washington to
convince a skeptical Government that
they had built machine which would
lift itself and two men into the air and
keep them there for an hour. The
Wright brothers, then needing money,
wanted to sell one of the frail strange,
craft to the Government. What the
Government intended to do with 1t was
not clear.
The brothers had been making more
or less successful air tests for several
years before they finally submitted their
machine to the Government. The
specifications of the Signal Corps, which
then had charge of anything pertaining
to aeronauticS, called for machine
which could do 40 miles and hour,
which could be taken apart to be packed
in Army wagons, and which would land
in field without wrecking itself.
First Passenger Scared"
Maj. Gen. George O. Squier, later
head of the Signal Corps, was one of
Orville Wright's first passengers, and
today he admits that the minutes
trip he took s'Scared him to DEATH"
Gen. Squier and Orville talked over the
fight here last week during the Inter-
national Aeronautical Congress.
Just bit more than 20 years ago
four flyers were making themselves
known. They were Capt Thomas S.
Baldwin, with dirigible; Henry Far
man, Frenchman, with an airplane:
Orville Wright, who was perfecting his
plane preparatory to Government tests,
and Wilbur Wright, who was startling
the French with record breaking air
journeys at lie Mans, France. The
American Government and the Americ-
can Congress were becoming interested
in the subject of aviation, and Orville
came here to sell plane to the War
Department, but he had to demon
strate its capacity for flight.
Test Made in Virginia.
The test was made in the vicinity of
Fort Myer, Va, and Shooters Hill,
near Alexandria. There were elaborate
preparations by newspapers and press
associations to cover it. An account of
those days shows that there were tenn
porary telegraph wires strung all over
nearby Virginia. One wire ran into an
abandoned golf clubhouse on top of
Shooters Hill near Alexandria. Each
morning an army of reporters would
journey out, several being stationed at
Fort Myer and others at Shooters Hill.
Still others, on horseback, would range
through the woods, waiting for the
flying machine to fall
The test was long delayed. Each day
| it was announced that the time for
flying was most propitious at a. m. and
5 pm, and the wind nearly every day
| seemed wrong At o'clock each eve
ming, when no flight was in sight, those
waiting made arrangements to sleep in
haystacks or whatever other places
were available until the magical hour of
am. and the hooed-for ascent.
Finally the flight was made and the
| Dayton brothers got their contract
| with the Government. During this
! period, however, Lieut.. Thomas E..
| SelfridgeS name was recorded as the
| first Army aviator to give his life in
| the advancement of the new science.
He fell with Orville Wright, who also
sutained a broken leg which kept him
in bed for months.
Stays Up Four Minutes.
In those days the headlines were filled
with sensational doings of aviators.
On one day Orville remained aloft for
| four minutes, thrilling" Army men.
A few days later, Wilbur, in France,
stayed up 19 minutes, breaking all
records. Then Orville made 81
minute flight with a passenger. And
finally he boosted this record to "a
minutes. Together the brothers were
breaking record each day.
It was at this time that the possibility
of flight to New York from Washing
ton was advanced, and to further this
vision, Orville made round trip from
Fort Myer to Alexandria, Va, dis
tance of ten miles, in IA minutes and
IL seconds.
l. Government officials, diplomats and
members of Congress Swarmed together
lin the crowd which witnessed the test
flights. There were no seats on the
plant for a passenger and there were
no wheels on the plane. Rather it was
catapulted down a runway and Gen
Squier says it was bumped into the
air. Old timers in aviation say 1900
persons witnessed the first official Gov
ernment test fight.
Thus aviation was officially introduced