Evening star., 1939-07-30
Air Service
Birthday
Orville Wright to
Receive Tribute
Of Air Corps
By Joseph S. Edeerfon.

The Army Air Corps will pause in
the midst of the opening phases
Of the greatest military aviation ex-
panslon program in American
peace time history on August 2, to
commemorate briefly the purchase
of the first military airplane and the
birth of military aeronautics.
All Air Corps posts on that day
will hold open house. while cere-
monies at which Orville Wright, CO.
builder of the first plane. will be the
guest of honor will be held at
Wright Field. Dayton, Ohio, Mr..
Wrights home and the heart of
the Air Corps research activities,
according to present plans.
On August 2, 1909, a War De-
partment board convened in the
gray granite building across the
street from the White House. form
ally accepted from Orville and Will
bur Wright, delivery of, the first
military airplane. Acceptance fol-
lowed spectacular fight tests reach
ing climax four days earlier in a
14-minute round-trip flight from
Fort Myer to Shutters Hill, near
Alexandria. Va, during which the
plane, exceeding all contract re-
quirements, made an average speed
of 42.593 miles per hour. On the
return leg it attained the sensa-
tional speed of 4743l miles per
hour.
During this wonderful flight. Or
vile Wright carried passenger,
youthful 1t. Benjamin D. Foulois,
later to become chief of the Army
Air Corps. then making his first
flight After the landing. 1t. Foulois
climbed down from his perch out
in the wide open spaces in front
of the wing to receive the hearty
congratulations of fellow officers on
his safe return"
Clinched Sale of Plane.
The Shutters Hill flight not only
clinched the sale of the first military
airplane but it earned for the
Wrights a War Department bonus
of $4,000 above the contract price
of SIS 900 for exceeding the contract
requirement of 40 miles per hour
The airplane, Wright B, pow
cred with a 45-horsepoWer Wright
engine, driving two propellers
through sprocket wheels and chains,
today hangs in the Smithsonian
Institution in Washington. the hon.
ored forbear of a modern line of
combat airplanes now nearing max
imum speeds of 400 miles per hour
10 times the required speed of their
30-year -old ancestor.
The 1909 plane was catapulted
from a monorail track by dropping
of weight in tower. 1t landed
b. on wooden skids which frequently
broke up and were snatched by
souvenir hunters to be made into
pens and other gadgetS. A require
ment of the contract was that the
airplane should be able to land in
open country anywhere without
damage-apparentl the breaking of
skids was considered to be routine
and not to be classified as dam
age"
For its first airplane the War
Department paid $4,000, including
the extra-speed bonus. The pay
ment, according to terms of the
contract. was to include the train
ing of two Army pilots. 1t. Foulois
and 1t. Frank P. Lahm were Sc
lected as the first students. Gen
Foulois now is retired and is living
on the Atlantic Coast in New Jer-
sey. Col. Lahm is on duty as air
officer on the staff of the COM
. manding general, Second Corps
Area, Governors Island, N. Y.
re-. Made Chief Clerk.
The original specifications for the
first military airplane and the con-
tract between the War Department
and the Wright brothers were draft
ed by John j. Mullaney, then a
clerk in the Office of Capt. Charles
, S. Wallace, Signal Corps disbursing
officer. Mr.. Mullaney, now the only
participant in the actual purchase
of the original airplane remaining
In the Federal service, today is chief
clerk in the Office of Maj. Gen
= Henry H. Arnold, chief of the Army
Air Corps. Thirty years ago Gen
> Arnold, soon to become one OF the
: pioneer students on that first air.
plane, was a second lieutenant on