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{\LARGE\strut{Story of the Aeroplane}}
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\noindent
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the \hyperlink{project-gutenberg-license}{Project Gutenberg License}
included with this eBook or online at
{https://www.gutenberg.org/license}.
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Title: Story of the Aeroplane
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\noindent
Author: C. B. Galbreath
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Release Date: February 03, 2012 {[}EBook \#38758{]}
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Language: English
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Character set encoding: UTF-8
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*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORY OF THE AEROPLANE ***
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Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at {http://www.bookcove.net}.
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{\Large\strut{C. B. Galbreath, M. A.}}
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F. A. OWEN PUB. CO., Dansville, N. Y.
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HALL \& McCREARY, Chicago, Ill.
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COPYRIGHT, 1915
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Table of Contents}

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\hyperlink{the-ocean-of-air}{The Ocean of Air}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{early-attempts-at-aviation}{Early Attempts at Aviation}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{early-flying-machines}{Early Flying Machines}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{nineteenth-century-experiments}{Nineteenth Century Experiments}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{claims-of-maxim-and-ader}{Claims of Maxim and Ader}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{langleys-tandem-monoplane}{Langley’s Tandem Monoplane}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{experiments-with-gliders}{Experiments with Gliders}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{aviation-at-the-beginning-of-the-present-century}{Aviation at the Beginning of the Present Century}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{the-kite}{The Kite}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{the-plane-defined}{The “Plane” Defined}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{essentials-of-the-aeroplane}{Essentials of the Aeroplane}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{the-wright-brothers-and-their-problem}{The Wright Brothers and Their Problem}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{balancing-the-machine}{Balancing the Machine}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{at-kitty-hawk}{At Kitty Hawk}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{the-first-flight}{The First Flight}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{machine-balanced-by-warping-of-planes}{Machine Balanced by Warping of Planes}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{newspaper-reports-verified}{Newspaper Reports Verified}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{trial-flights-at-fort-meyer}{Trial Flights at Fort Meyer}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{fatal-accident}{Fatal Accident}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{wilbur-wright-wins-fame-in-france}{Wilbur Wright Wins Fame in France}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{wright-brothers-honored}{Wright Brothers Honored}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{united-states-government-requirements-successfully-met}{United States Government Requirements Successfully Met}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{recent-improvements}{Recent Improvements}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{future-of-the-aeroplane}{Future of the Aeroplane}\par
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The Ocean of Air}

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{\noindent}
Around the dry land of the earth are the oceans of
water. We may never have seen them, but we have
knowledge of them and their navigation, and their
names suggest very definite and concrete objects of
thought. We sometimes do not realize, however, that
we live and move and have our being at the bottom of
a vaster and deeper ocean that covers to a depth of
many miles the whole earth, and to the surface of which
man nor beast nor bird has ever ascended; an ocean
with currents and whirlpools and waves of more than
mountain height; an ocean in which we are as much at
home as are the finny tribes and the monsters of the
deep in their watery caverns. This is the ocean of the
air. We are about to consider man’s efforts to rise from
the bottom of this ocean and wing his flight a little way
through the atmosphere above him. His excursions
upward are limited, for he could not live near the surface
heights of this ocean, vast and deep and boundless.
The art and science of his flight through the air, because
of its relation to the flight of birds, we call aviation.
({\itshape{Avis}}: Latin, a bird.)\par

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Early Attempts at Aviation}

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{\noindent}
“The birds can fly and why can’t I?”\par

This query of Darius Green’s, in various forms, has
suggested itself to man since the dawn of history. Born
with an inspiration to look upward and aspire, the navigation
of the air has appealed with peculiar force to his
imagination and through the centuries has at different
times led bold and adventurous spirits to attempt what
the world long regarded as impossible. The heavens
seemed reserved for winged insects, birds and angels.
Audacious man might not venture out upon the impalpable
air. Can man fly? After more than four thousand
years it was left for man to answer yes, to rise from
the earth on wing and thrill the world “with the audacity
of his design and the miracle of its execution.”
Bold enterprise! Fitting achievement to usher in a new
century! A seeming miracle at first, but destined soon
to excite no more curiosity than the flight of bees and
birds. The solution of the problem of human flight was
no miracle nor was it the swift work of genius accomplished
at a magic master stroke. It was the result of
intelligence and industry patiently applied for years till
the barriers of difficulty gave way and man ventured
out with assurance on the highways of the air.\par

Just when he first attempted to fly is not known.
Ancient Greek mythology abounds in stories of flying
gods and mortals. Kites which bear some relation to
the aeroplane were toys among the Chinese thousands
of years ago. A Greek by the name of Achytes is reported
to have made a wooden dove which flew under
the propelling power of heated air. Baldad, a tribal
king in what is now England, so tradition has it, attempted
to fly over a city but fell and broke a leg. A
similar accident is said to have happened to a Benedictine
monk in the eleventh century and to others attempting
like exploits in after years. A fall and a broken
leg seem to have been the usual results of these early
attempts at aerial flight.\par

In the fifteenth century students and inventors gave
serious attention to the navigation of the air and trustworthy
accounts of their labors come down to us. Jean
Baptiste Dante, a brother of the great Italian poet,
made a number of gliding flights from high elevations
and while giving an exhibition at a marriage feast in
Perugia, like his predecessors in the middle ages,
alighted on a roof and broke a leg. Leonardo da Vinci,
the great painter and sculptor, was an amateur aviator
of no mean attainment for his day. He invented a
machine which the operator was to fly by using his arms
and legs to set wings into flapping motion, like those of
birds. This was called an orthopter, or ornithopter, a
name which may be properly applied to any similar device.
Another machine invented by him was in the
form of a horizontal screw ninety-six feet in diameter.
By the twisting of this the machine was designed to fly
upward. This was called a helicopter. Da Vinci’s third
invention in this line was the parachute, with which
successful descents were made from towers and other elevations.
In the early half of the eighteenth century the
Swedish philosopher, Emanuel Swedenborg, sketched
in one of his works a flying machine of the orthopter
style which he knew would not fly but which he suggested
as a start, saying “It seems easier to talk of such
a machine than to put it into actuality, for it requires
greater force and less weight than exists in the human
body.”\par

In 1742 the Marquis di Bacqueville at the age of sixty-two
attempted to make a gliding flight from the tower
of his home in Paris across the river Seine to the gardens
of the Tuileries, started successfully in the presence
of a great multitude, but suddenly halted over the
river and fell into a boat, paying the historic penalty of
a broken leg.\par

At this point it may be well to classify the flying devices
thus far considered.\par

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Early Flying Machines}

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{\noindent}
1. The {\itshape{orthopters}}, or as they are less commonly called,
the ornithopters. The word “orthopter” means straight
wing and the word “ornithopter” bird wing. This
class of machines includes those designed to fly by the
flapping of wings, somewhat in imitation of birds.\par

2. The {\itshape{helicopters}}. The word “helicopter” means
spiral wing. Flying machines of this class are designed
to fly by the rapid horizontal rotation of two spiral propellers
moving in opposite directions but so shaped that
their combined effect is to move the machine upward.
They are like a pair of tractor propellers of the modern
aeroplane but arranged horizontally to lift the machine
instead of drawing it forward in a vertical position.\par

3. The {\itshape{gliders}}. As the name suggests, these were designed
to coast or glide down the air, to start from a
high elevation and by sailing through the air in an
oblique direction reach a lower elevation at some distance
from the starting point. Down to the latter part
of the nineteenth century only the gliders were successfully
used in man flight. In reality they can scarcely
be called flying machines for they could not lift their
own weight, though late experiments prove that when
once in air they may rise above their starting point
under the influence of a strong wind. The glider, however,
performed a most important part in the evolution
of the aeroplane. In coasting the air from hills, sand
dunes and towers against steady wind currents a number
of inventors through a series of years learned how
to guide and control these gliders in their downward
flight--an essential preparation for the application of
motive power to lift the glider against the force of
gravity and thus make it a veritable flying machine or
aeroplane.\par

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Nineteenth Century Experiments}

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{\noindent}
In the early part of the last century an Englishman,
Sir George Cayley, made many experiments with gliders
and tabulated with great care the results of his investigations.
He concluded, like Swedenborg, that man has
not the power to fly by his own strength through any
wing-flapping device, or orthopter, but he intimated
that with a lighter and more powerful engine than had
then been invented a plane like those used in his gliders,
if slightly inclined upward, might be made gradually
to ascend through the air. The results of his experiments
he published in 1810. They clearly foreshadowed
the triumph that came almost a century later.\par

In 1844 two British inventors, Henson and String-fellow,
working out the suggestions of Cayley, made an
aeroplane model equipped with a steam engine which is
said to have made a flight of forty yards--the first real
upward flight of a heavier than air machine on record.
This model was a monoplane, that is, the lifting surface
was a single plane like the outstretched wings of a bird.
Twenty-two years later experiments were made with a
biplane, that is, an aeroplane with two lifting planes
or surfaces, one above the other.\par

\penalty-300%
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Claims of Maxim and Ader}

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{\noindent}
While others had made flying models, Sir Hiram
Maxim in England constructed a multiplane, driven by
a powerful steam engine over a track and rising at one
time, as he declares, a few inches from the ground. He
claims that his was the first machine to “lift man off
the ground by its own power.” This test was made in
1889.\par

Clement Ader, a Frenchman, also claims this honor,
saying that he was the first to make a machine that
would rise and lift a passenger. On October 9, 1890,
his friends say he made a short forward flight of 150
feet in a monoplane propelled by a forty horse power
steam engine. In 1897 he claims to have made a number
of secret flights, but a little later, in a test before
officers of the French army who had become interested
in the invention, the machine turned over and was
wrecked. The support of the army for further experiments
was withdrawn and Ader in despair abandoned
the problem of aerial navigation which had claimed long
years of study and unremitting effort. He stopped just
short of the goal “with success almost within his grasp.”\par

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Langley’s Tandem Monoplane}

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{\noindent}
About this time two Americans, Samuel Pierpont
Langley, of the Smithsonian Institution and Octave
Chanute were conducting along scientific lines a series
of experiments in aviation. On May 6, 1896, a steam-propelled
model was started in a flight over the Potomac
River. Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the
telephone, who was present, declared that after a flight
of eighty to one hundred feet the machine “settled
down so softly that it touched the water without the
least shock and was in fact immediately ready for a second
trial.” Other experiments were tried with success.\par

Langley’s first machine was a tandem monoplane, that
is it had two pairs of wings, one immediately following
the other. The engine and the propellers were between
the two pairs of wings. In later models he used the biplane
construction.\par

Finally the United States government appropriated
\$50,000 to build a machine that would carry a passenger.
In constructing this, Langley equipped it with a gasoline
engine of about three horse power. The machine
was comparatively light, weighing all told only fifty-eight
pounds. On August 8, 1903, a public test was
made “without a pilot,” on the Potomac River near
Washington. Spectators and reporters congratulated
the inventor on the success of the experiment, while he
with modest satisfaction said, “This is the first time in
history, so far as I know, that a successful flight of a
mechanically sustained flying machine has been made
in public.” This statement was no doubt true of machines
of any considerable size, but as we shall presently
see, toy flying machines of the {\itshape{helicopter}} type had long
ere this been exhibited to the wondering gaze of boys
who were ultimately to bring to a practical conclusion
man’s long line of effort to rise triumphant and shape
his course through the ocean of air.\par

Langley’s machine had flown without a pilot. A little
later the inventor announced himself ready for the final
test. Like his first model, his machine was a tandem
monoplane. Its weight with pilot was 830 pounds and
its plane or wing surface was 1040 square feet. It was
fifty-two feet long and its arched wings measured forty-eight
feet from tip to tip. The gasoline motor with
which it was equipped developed fifty-two horse power
and with all accessories weighed about 250 pounds.\par

At Widewater, Virginia, September 7, 1903, the machine
was tested. On a barge it was carried out into
the Potomac River, with Charles M. Manley, Professor
Langley’s assistant, who was to pilot it in its first flight.
The moment for the supreme test arrived. A mechanical
device on the barge shot the machine and pilot into
the air. To the disappointment and dismay of the spectators,
the machine plunged front downward into the
water. It was rescued with the young pilot unharmed.
Another attempt was made to launch it in the air with
a similar result, except that this time it dropped into the
water rear end downward. The government gave the
project no further encouragement, and the query ascribed
to Darius Green remained unanswered. Professor
Langley died a few years afterward, his life shortened,
it is believed, through the blighting of the hope that he
had long entertained to be the first successfully to navigate
the air.\par

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Experiments with Gliders}

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{\noindent}
Through the latter part of the last century experiments
were carried on with gliders. Among those who
achieved much success in this field was the German,
Otto Lilienthal, the “flying man,” who made remarkable
glides in the early nineties. He would run along the
crest of a hill, jump from a precipitous declivity and
sail on the wings of his glider over the valley below,
guiding his course up and down and from side to side
with a rudder attached to the machine. It was his idea
that the problem of aviation was to be solved by perfecting
the glider so that it could be controlled in its
downward flight and then adding a propelling power
that would sustain it and lift it through the air.\par

After the death of Lilienthal by accident in 1896,
others continued experiments along similar lines with
the same purpose in view. Among these were Octave
Chanute and A. M. Herring. They tried at first a monoplane
glider and afterward one of five planes. This
number they reduced to two. The rudder was made of
movable horizontal and vertical blades. It was found
that the glider with two planes, the biplane, was most
satisfactory.\par

Herring made for this a compressed air engine and
claimed that with this he accomplished a flight of seventy-three
feet. There is some doubt, however, as to
this claim and some question as to whether it was an
upward flight or a downward glide.\par

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Aviation at the Beginning of the Present Century}

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{\noindent}
As briefly outlined here, such was the status of aviation
at the beginning of the new century. Much progress
had been made and substantial vantage ground
had been gained, but the problem still awaited practical
solution. At this point it may be well to consider some
of the features of the problem and the devices thus far
evolved by long years of investigation and experiment.\par

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The Kite}

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{\noindent}
One of the simplest forms of the aeroplane is the common
kite. This takes various forms. It is usually made
of a framework of three light strips of wood crossing a
little above the center and secured at the outer ends by
similar strips, or strong cord tautly drawn and making
when covered with paper a six-sided figure. From the
corners of the framework cords are drawn to a common
point near the center and there firmly united. At this
point of union is attached the twine which is held in the
hand of the kite flyer. From the base of the kite is suspended
a string with light horizontal paper rolls, each
about the size of a lead pencil, tied at intervals of a few
inches, and forming the tail which steadies the kite in
air. The paper surface of the kite is the plane on which
the pressure of the air current and the power applied to
the string is to lift the kite upward. As this simple
form of the kite has but one plane, it may be considered
a monoplane. The box kite presents two such surfaces
joined together at the sides by the ends of the “box,”
and may therefore be called a biplane.\par

When the boy flies his kite he first determines the
direction of the wind and runs in that direction. In
other words he flies his kite against the wind. The pressure
of the moving current against the under surface
keeps the kite aloft. When the boy runs against the
wind, moving the kite forward with him, this pressure
is increased and the kite tends to rise higher and higher.
If instead of the long string and the boy there could be
placed with the kite itself a very light motor that would
give to it the same forward impulse, the kite would float
through the air without boy or string and we would
have a small aeroplane flying machine--a monoplane.
If there were two kites, with parallel surfaces a few
inches apart, united with light framework so that the
air would pass between them, we should have a biplane.
For many years the great problem in aviation was to get
an engine of sufficient lightness and power to propel
monoplanes, biplanes and multiplanes at an upward
angle through the air.\par

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The “Plane” Defined}

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{\noindent}
It may not be out of place here to consider what Constitutes
a plane, as that term is used in aviation. It is
that part of the aeroplane, the pressure of the air upon
the surface of which, lifts and sustains the aeroplane
aloft. The plane may take a variety of forms; it may
be curved or its parts may meet in an angle; it may be
uniform and unbroken in shape or divided into parts.
The two wings of a bird would constitute a monoplane,
when they are in a horizontal position for soaring, or
when the tips are uplifted and they form an angle like
a broad V, called a dihedral angle. If the aeroplane has
two such planes, one back of the other, it is still called
a monoplane, or, more definitely, a tandem monoplane;
but if one of the planes is above the other it is called a
biplane. A similar arrangement of three planes, one
above the other, could be called a triplane and one of
several planes a multiplane.\par

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Essentials of the Aeroplane}

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{\noindent}
{\itshape{The planes}}, as already described are, of course, a necessary
part of the aeroplane.\par

{\itshape{The propeller}} supplies motive power to the aeroplane.
This moves in a circle much like the blades of the electric
fan or the propeller of a motor boat or modern stern ship.
By driving the air backward it propels the aeroplane forward.
While the blades of the propeller are of considerable
length they are usually inconspicuous in photographs,
and as one who has never seen an aeroplane
looks at a photograph he naturally asks, “What moves it
through the air?” The propeller is driven by the engine.\par

{\itshape{The engine}} is usually of the gasoline type which develops
high power with light weight, frequently one
horse power for every three pounds of weight and in
rare instances as high as one horse power for every
pound of weight. These powerful little engines are
marvels of mechanism and they have had much to do
in the rapid modern progress of aeronautics.\par

{\itshape{The rudder}}, as its name indicates, guides the aeroplane
in its flight. It consists in the main of small horizontal
and vertical planes under the control of the pilot.
These may be in the front of the machine, but they are
usually placed in the rear. By skillful manipulation of
these the aeroplane can be guided upward, downward,
to right or left at will. It is also guided and controlled
as we shall see, by the “warping” or “curving” of the
wings or planes.\par

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The Wright Brothers and Their Problem}

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{\noindent}
The dawn of the twentieth century was to immortalize
new names in the annals of aviation. In the city of
Dayton, Ohio, two brothers in a modest way were conducting
a bicycle repair shop. From youth they had
been inseparable in their aims and work. They were
the sons of Bishop Milton Wright of the United Brethren
Church. They had each a high school education but had
not attended college. In 1878, when they were boys of
seven and eleven years respectively, their father brought
them one evening a little flying toy, a small helicopter,
the motive power of which was furnished by a rubber
band wound around the shafts of two propellers so as to
drive them, when “wound up” and released, in opposite
directions. The toy was made of light material to resemble
a bird. When the father released it in the presence
of the wondering boys, to their astonishment it
flew upward in the room, rose to the ceiling and after
fluttering there for a little while fell to the floor. They
did not concern themselves much about the name of the
toy, but properly called it what to their minds it most
closely resembled--“the bat.” They afterward made
other toys like it and discovered that as they were increased
in size they flew less successfully. They early
developed a fondness for kite flying and in this were
regarded as experts. When they grew to manhood,
however, they abandoned these boyish sports and devoted
themselves industriously to their machine and repair
shop. “The bat” and the kite became memories,
but the memories of youth have power to shape the
thoughts of manhood, and this early observation and experience
with aerial toys gave to Wilbur and Orville
Wright an interest in the attempts at aviation that were
chronicled in the press from time to time through the
decade immediately preceding this new century.\par

In the year 1896 Orville, the younger of the two brothers,
was convalescing from a serious attack of typhoid
fever. Wilbur, who had been carefully attending him,
was one day reading aloud an account of the death of
Otto Lilienthal, the German aviator, who was killed
while experimenting with his glider. The details of
the tragic accident, together with an account of what
he had accomplished by years of investigation and experiment,
interested the brothers, who resolved as soon
as possible to apply themselves to the construction of a
glider in which flights could be made with comparative
safety. The enthusiasm of Orville over the project ran
so high that it almost caused a return of the fever. As
soon as he had fully recovered, the two brothers returned
to their bicycle shop and applied themselves with
increasing zeal to the study of aeronautics, and after a
time began the construction of a glider.\par

The Wright brothers were peculiarly well equipped
for the work upon which they had entered. They were
men of unflagging industry, abstemious habits, few
words and the happy faculty of keeping their own counsel.
Wilbur was unusually reticent. It is said of him
that he spoke only when he had something to say and
then in a manner singularly brief and direct. “He had
an unlimited capacity for hard work, nerves of steel and
the kind of daring that makes the aviator face death
with pleasure every minute of the time he is in the
air.” Orville, while much like his brother, is more
talkative and approachable. Both were modest and unassuming
when they began their work and continued so
when the world applauded their achievements.\par

In the study of the problem upon the solution of which
they ventured, they had of course the advantage of all
that had thus far been achieved by those who had preceded
them in this field of investigation and experiment.
Professor Langley had already perfected his first monoplane
to such an extent that short flights were successfully
made with a light steam-propelled model. He was
continuing his experiments and the Wright brothers
read with avidity the results of his work. Every scrap
of information that they could gather from others who
had essayed the solution of the problem was now collected
and made the subject of critical study. At first
taking up aeronautics merely as a sport, they soon afterward
with zest began its more serious pursuit. “We
reluctantly entered upon the scientific side of it.” they
said, “but we soon found the work so fascinating that
we were drawn into it deeper and deeper.”\par

In their efforts to construct a practical flying machine
they adopted the plan of Lilienthal and Chanute. They
sought to construct a machine which they could control
and in which they could make glides with safety. This
they built in the form of a biplane glider and with it
they experimented industriously for years. The
successful construction of the machine required a high degree
of skill. The length and width of the planes, their
distance apart, the materials to be used, the shape, size
and position of the rudder and numerous other details
were to be worked out only by patient study and frequent
tests. They were now in the field of original experiment
and soon found that they had to reject as useless
many theories that had been carefully elaborated by
scholarly writers.\par

The brothers soon learned that a long narrow plane in
a position nearly horizontal, moved in a direction at
right angles to one of its lateral edges and inclined or
“tipped” slightly upward would develop greater lifting
power than a square or circular plane. This discovery
was not indeed original with them, but their experiments
confirmed the conclusions of their predecessors.\par

The surface shape of the plane is an important consideration.
It has been found that a slight upward arch
from beneath, making the under surface concave, gives
the best results. The concavity should reach its maximum
about one-third of the distance from the front or
entering edge to the rear edge of the plane and should
be the same whether one or more planes are used. In
flight the forward or entering edges of the planes are
tipped slightly upward to give the machine lifting power
for the same reason that the top of a kite is given an
angle of elevation so that the air will lift it as it is
drawn forward by the string.\par

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Balancing the Machine}

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{\noindent}
The balancing of a machine in mid-air is one of the
most difficult problems in aviation. In the balloon this
is easily accomplished because the principal weight, the
basket with the passenger, is below the gas-filled sphere
or compartment, and the balloon tends to right itself
after any disturbance by the wind, much like a plummet
when swayed out of its position.\par

Professor Langley, Lilienthal and others had sought
to take advantage of this tendency in the construction
of their machines by placing or arching the wings above
the pilot or heavier portion of the mechanism. After
a slight disturbance in mid-air the machine would then
tend to right or balance itself and assume its former position.
The practical difficulty of this arrangement,
however, arose from the fact that when once set to
swaying the gliders thus constructed continued to sway
like the pendulum of a clock. The Wright brothers
set themselves the task of finding some other method of
preventing the biplane from dipping downward or upward
at either side with the shifting of air currents.
The first device to give steadiness of motion was a small
movable horizontal plane, supported parallel with and
in front of the two main planes, and by means of a
lever, under control of the pilot.\par

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At Kitty Hawk}

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{\noindent}
Having after much study completed their glider, the
Wright brothers sought a suitable place for their first
tests. By correspondence with the United States
Weather Bureau they learned that at Kitty Hawk, North
Carolina, the winds are stronger and more constant than
at any other point in the United States. This treeless
waste of sand dunes along the solitary shore near the
village afforded the privacy where they might carry on
their work unmolested. Here in October, 1900, they
spent their vacation testing their biplane glider. They
sought to fly it in the face of the wind like a kite. This
they succeeded in doing but it would not support the
weight of a man. They then experimented with it,
using light ropes from below to work the levers and
guide it through the air. It was sufficiently responsive
to encourage them and they went back home to make at
their leisure a number of improvements.\par

The year following they returned to the same place
with a larger machine considerably improved, but it
still failed to lift the operator. Octave Chanute, of
Chicago, with whom they had been in correspondence,
came to witness their tests and examine their glider.
They now decided to abandon much of the “scientific
data” which they had collected from the writings of
others and proceeded in the light of their own experience.
They coasted down the air from the tops of sand
dunes and tested with satisfaction their devices for
guiding their air craft. In 1902, with additional improvements,
they made almost one thousand gliding
flights, some of which carried them a little over six hundred
feet, more than twice the distance attained the
previous year. All this time their object had been to
control the machine while in air. Only after this was
accomplished did they propose to add motive power to
keep it above the earth. They wisely reasoned that it
would be useless to apply this power to a machine that
could not be directed and controlled.\par

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The First Flight}

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{\noindent}
The Wrights had now reached a point where they felt
that they were ready to apply motive power, rise like a
bird from the earth and direct their course through the
air. A new machine was built with two planes, each
six feet six inches wide and measuring forty feet from
tip to tip. The planes were arranged one directly above
the other with an intervening space of six feet. An
elevating rudder of two horizontal planes ten feet in
front of the machine, and a rudder of two vertical planes
about six feet long and one foot apart in the rear of the
machine were under control by levers close to the hands
of the pilot, who, prostrate on the lower large plane,
directed the course up or down, to the right or left at
will. But the most remarkable features of all were the
gasoline engine that was to give motive power and the
propellers by which that power was to move the machine
in its flight through the air. The mechanism,
the result of patient study and arduous labor, had been
perfected in the little shop at Dayton and had been
brought to the barren sand coast of North Carolina for
its first practical test. The engine, which developed
sixteen horse power, was connected by chains with the
two propellers, each eight feet in diameter at the rear
of the biplane. The total weight was 750 pounds.\par

To give the machine a “start” it was driven rapidly
along an iron rail by a cable attached to a weight of one
ton suspended at the top of a derrick. When everything
was at last in readiness, the engine was started,
the propellers were set in rapid motion, the weight at
the top of the derrick was released, the biplane was
driven rapidly forward, and lo! bearing a man, it
skimmed over the sand dunes! It continued only eleven
seconds but landed without injury to pilot or machine.
A small beginning indeed, but it proved the practicability
of man flight and ushered in the era of aviation.
A few days earlier in the same month on the
banks of the Potomac a crowd of witnesses saw with
keen disappointment the failure of Professor Langley’s
flying machine, and as they turned away said mentally
and not a few of them audibly, “Impracticable!” “It
can’t be done.” On the sand near Kitty Hawk, in the
presence only of the inventors and five others, life
savers and fishermen from Kill Devil Hill Station near
by, fortune rewarded two brothers unknown to the
world and they achieved what had long been regarded
as impracticable and impossible. Professor Langley
worked long and patiently on his models and was very
properly given \$50,000 by the government to aid in an
enterprise that was to give man dominion of the air.
The Wright brothers with the same faith and unflagging
zeal worked secretly in their little shop at Dayton without
financial assistance and out of their small earnings
conducted experiments on the Carolina coast, doing
their own cooking to lighten expenses, and solved the
problem that had thwarted the inventive genius of the
world. No crowds, appreciating the significance of the
event were present to applaud, nor did the brothers
exult over the achievement. It was indeed only what
they had confidently expected.\par

On the day of their initial success two other nights
of slightly longer duration were made. The fourth
flight continued fifty-nine seconds, almost a minute, and
extended over a distance of 853 feet. The machine was
then carried back to camp. In an unguarded moment
it was caught by a gust of wind, rolled violently over
the ground and was partially wrecked. But what mattered
the loss? For the first time in the history of the
world a machine carrying a man had raised itself by its
own power into the air in free flight, had sailed forward
on a level course without reduction of speed and had
landed without being wrecked.\par

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Machine Balanced by Warping of Planes}

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{\noindent}
The Wrights found one of the greatest difficulties to
be overcome was the balancing of their machine. This
was only measurably and unsatisfactorily accomplished
by the horizontal rudder. They began to study the
flight of soaring birds for a solution of the difficulty.
They found that the hawk, the eagle and the gull maintained
a horizontal position by a slight, almost imperceptible
upward or downward bending of the extreme
tips of their wings. They then began experiments with
slightly flexible planes that could be bent or warped at
will by the pilot. This was one of their most important
and original contributions to the problem of aviation,
and it gave the pilot in a marked degree control of his
machine. The scientific arching of the planes to give
them the maximum lifting effect was also the result of
their investigations.\par

They now removed the field of experiment to Hoffman
Prairie near Dayton where at first they met with indifferent
success. They invited friends and reporters
from their home city to witness a flight, but the machine
acted badly in the presence of company. While the
spectators were not favorably impressed the inventors
were in no wise discouraged. Their perseverance was
later rewarded in 1904 by a flight of three miles in five
minutes and twenty-seven seconds. The year following
a flight of 24.20 miles was made in thirty-eight minutes,
thirteen seconds, at heights of seventy-five to one
hundred feet. These attracted small attention. The
inventors fully satisfied with their success and working
industriously to perfect their machine were also safeguarding
the results of their labors by carefully patenting
every device that helped them to the goal of practical
aviation. While Europe was applauding the achievements
of the intrepid and wealthy Brazilian, Santos-Dumont,
who made public flights near Paris, the world
was practically unaware of the greater achievements of
the Wright brothers a year earlier. Newspaper accounts
of their flights were received with a degree of incredulity,
but the indifference of the public was favorable to
the modest brothers who with tireless energy and slender
means triumphed over difficulty after difficulty as
they moved toward the larger success that they ardently
desired and the fame that they sought not.\par

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Newspaper Reports Verified}

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{\noindent}
In 1907 the United States Government asked for bids
for a flying machine that would carry two men, remain
in the air an hour and make a cross-country flight of
forty miles an hour. The Wright brothers entered into
a contract to build such a machine. This fact and
rumors of their success that reached the large cities
from time to time led a party of newspaper reporters to
organize themselves into a spying party to trace the
Wrights to their secret retreat and verify the claims
made in their behalf or publish the deception to the
public. After a long and tedious journey from Norfolk
they finally sighted the rude hut of these birdmen.
They then secreted themselves until they were rewarded
with evidence that the reports were true and promptly
announced to the world that these quiet men had actually
solved the problem of aerial flight.\par

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Trial Flights at Fort Meyer}

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{\noindent}
In 1908 Orville Wright began trial flights at Fort
Meyer preliminary to the tests required by the government
contracts. A record flight was made in June.
The morning was still and beautiful; the leaves hung
motionless on the great plane trees of Washington as
Orville Wright and August Post, Secretary of the Aero
Club of America left the city about six o’clock and proceeded
by way of Georgetown to Fort Meyer where trial
flights were to be made with the biplane. It was taken
from its shed and placed on the starting rail. The
weights were lifted into position, the engine started,
the propellers set in rapid motion and all was in readiness
for starting. Only a few persons were in sight,
including a squad of soldiers who were cleaning the guns
of a field battery. Mr. Wright took his place on the
machine. At a signal the weights were released, it
was drawn forward, and rising gracefully at the end of
the rail gradually ascended in a circuitous course upward.
Mr. Post kept time and marked circuits on the
back of an envelope. Round and round went the machine,
rising higher and higher. After a little the spectators
realized that a record flight was in progress.
Ten--twenty minutes passed. Higher and higher circled
the aeroplane. Now it has been aloft on wing for
half an hour! The spectators stand rigid and look upward.
Mr. Taylor, chief mechanic, in almost breathless
interest exclaims, “Don’t make a motion. If you do
he’ll come down.”\par

In the city, word had reached the newspaper reporters
that Mr. Wright had gone out for a flight. “Does he
intend to fly today?” came the question over the telephone.
“Yes, he is in the air now and has been flying
for more than half an hour,” was the answer.\par

Then came the rush for fuller details and the results
of the record-making trial were flashed over the country
and cabled under the seas to distant lands. Senators,
congressmen, departmental officials and representatives
of every walk of life in the national capital were a little
later on their way to witness another exhibition of the
wonderful flying machine. Mr. Wright in the afternoon
made another world’s record, remaining in the air
an hour and seven minutes. In the evening with Lieutenant
Lahm at his side he performed without accident
the greatest two-man flight ever made. These achievements
awed and thrilled the great throng of spectators
who greeted the triumphant conclusion of each with
tumultuous cheers. The problem of the centuries had
been solved. The “impossible” had been accomplished!
The dream of the visionaries had become a reality!\par

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Fatal Accident}

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{\noindent}
On the 17th of September occurred a sad accident that
brought to a close for the year the preliminary tests
that had been carried on thus far with marked success.
When Orville Wright and Lieutenant Selfridge were
flying at a height of about seventy-five feet, one of the
propellers struck a stray wire which coiled around and
broke the blade. This precipitated the machine earthward
and fatally injured Lieutenant Selfridge who died
three hours afterward. Orville narrowly escaped the
same fate with a number of broken bones. Aviation at
this time was attended with great dangers and the daring
spirits who ventured aloft on the wings of the wind
were in constant peril of their lives.\par

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Wilbur Wright Wins Fame in France}

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{\noindent}
Meanwhile Wilbur Wright who had gone to France
was making a series of record flights. Early in the
month of August near Le Mans he flew fifty-two miles
and was in the air one hour and thirty-one minutes. A
few days later he broke the previous record for altitude,
attaining an elevation of 380 feet. On the 31st day of
December he won 20,000 francs for the longest flight of
the year. His modest bearing, simple habits and wonderful
achievements called forth great praise from the
impressionable French. When he took up his quarters
at Le Mans he arranged to prepare his own meals as he
had previously done on the coast of North Carolina, but
the French would not hear to this and furnished him a
cook. In speaking of this incident afterward Wilbur
Wright said in a jocular way: “Not knowing enough
French to dismiss him or find out who sent him, I permitted
him to remain.”\par

In January, 1909, Orville Wright, who had recovered
from his injuries, joined his brother at Pau, France.
Here they gave many exhibition flights that were witnessed
by the great scientists and the nobility of
Europe. Here their feats were witnessed by the King
of England and the King of Spain who personally extended
hearty congratulations. Wilbur took his machine
to Rome where King Emanuel attended his exhibition
flights. Later the two brothers were the guests,
in London, of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain
and received its gold medal. Their bearing and achievements
abroad gave them world-wide fame.\par

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Wright Brothers Honored}

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{\noindent}
Arriving in Washington June 10th, they received a
medal at the hands of President Taft from the Aero
Club of America. Continuing their journey homeward,
they were met at Xenia, Ohio, by a delegation from
Dayton. They at once began to inquire about their fellow
townsmen.\par

“Look here, Wilbur,” said one of the committee,
“you’ll see all those folks at the station in a few
moments.”\par

“Why, who is at the station?” asked Wright.\par

“Oh, twenty-five or thirty of the boys” was the reply.\par

As they entered their home city they saw the streets
thronged with people.\par

“I see the twenty-five or thirty,” remarked Mr.
Wright, “but I thought you folks knew better than
this.”\par

Later they were honored in their home city with a
two-day celebration, at the climax of which medals were
presented to them from Congress, from the State of
Ohio and from the city of Dayton. Their fame was
world-wide and at last their own city had “discovered”
them and welcomed them with enthusiastic pride.\par

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{\noindent}
Soon afterward they returned to Fort Meyer to continue
their work preparatory to the final tests. They
had entered into a contract with the United States Government
which was to pay \$25,000 for a machine which
would carry two men one hour in a circuitous course and
perform a cross-country flight of ten miles at the rate
of forty miles an hour. On the day of the final tests the
people of Washington came forth in greater crowds than
ever before. Officialdom, including representatives of
foreign embassies, army officers, newspaper correspondents
and civilians, were present to witness the crucial
test. Among the spectators was Miss Katherine Wright,
the scholarly sister of the two brothers, who had followed
with deep and sympathetic interest every step in
the progress of her brothers up to this hour.\par

At a signal, Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Lahm
again at his side started on his time-test flight. Upward
in spiral course they rose. At length the hour
limit was passed and a mighty cheer from the multitude
announced the result. Still the machine with its two
passengers remained aloft. Nine minutes more passed.
The world’s record made by Wilbur Wright was broken.\par

Wilbur, who was present, announced the result by waving
a handkerchief and calling aloud, “Give him a cheer,
boys.” Soon after this the machine gently descended,
having been in the air an hour, twelve minutes and
forty seconds, the longest two passenger flight that had
been made to that date.\par

Orville Wright was soon overwhelmed with congratulations.
Coming forward President Taft said:\par

“I am glad to congratulate you on your achievement.
You came down as gracefully and as much like a bird
as you went up. I hope your passenger behaved himself
and did not talk to the motorman. It was a wonderful
performance. I would not have missed it.”\par

The President then shook hands with Wilbur, saying,
“Your brother has broken your record.”\par

“Yes,” replied Wilbur, with a smile, “but it’s all in
the family.”\par

On August 30 came the speed trial over a course from
Ft. Meyer to Alexandria five miles distant. This at that
time was considered the most difficult test of all. The
course was over a broken and uneven country, valleys,
ravines, hills, forests and open fields alternating. Lieutenant
Benjamin D. Foulois was chosen to accompany
Orville Wright on this perilous trip. The machine arose
and circled between the two flags that marked the starting
line, and amid cheers of the spectators started on
its flight toward the two captive balloons that marked
the limit of the course. Smaller and smaller it grew in
the distance as it was swayed slightly out of its path by
the wind. It at length turned the goal on the hill at
Alexandria. On the return it was borne downward
until it disappeared. Would it rise again or would it
be swept down by a treacherous current and wrecked
in the valley? After a moment’s suspense it again appeared
in clearer outline over the treetops. Nearer and
nearer it came until in the midst of waving handkerchiefs
and thunderous cheers, it softly alighted near its
starting place. The daring aviator was heartily congratulated
again by the President and other eminent
men who thronged about him. His sister told him that
the glad news had already been telegraphed to his aged
father in Dayton. The machine had successfully met
all requirements and had made in the cross-country flight
42.6 miles an hour, entitling the brothers in addition to
the \$25,000 to a bonus of \$5,000, making in all \$30,000.
Wonderful as was this record at the time, succeeding
flights with improved machines now make it seem
trivial and commonplace.\par

Later in the year 1909 Orville Wright went back to
Europe where he achieved distinction in a number of
nights while Wilbur remained at home to participate in
the Hudson-Fulton celebration and thrill his countrymen
by encircling in a flight the statue of liberty and
returning to his starting point on Governor’s Island.\par

It is not necessary to follow further the aeronautic
achievements of the Wright brothers. While they were
the first to construct a successful aeroplane, inventors
in America and abroad quickly followed them and machines
of various forms and construction but based on
the same principle were soon making record flights in
many lands. The simultaneous development of the
aeroplane in the United States and Europe is explained
by the fact that the progress of the experiments of the
Wright Brothers was promptly reported and eagerly
noted on the other side of the Atlantic. Octave Chanute
immediately after his visit to Kitty Hawk made a trip
abroad and gave a detailed account of what the Wright
brothers had accomplished. This account with drawings
was published and European inventors had this
information on which to work. In 1909 Louis Bleriot,
a French aviator, who had sprung into prominence the
preceding year, crossed the English Channel in his beautiful
birdlike monoplane. In 1910 George Chauz, flying
upward 7,000 feet, crossed the Alps amid the treacherous
and frozen winds of the snow-capped peaks only
to meet a tragic death as he neared the goal in sunny
Italy. Equally daring and dangerous was the trip of
the brilliant American aviator Glenn Curtis in his biplane
from Albany to New York City, followed a few
days later by the notable achievement of Charles K.
Hamilton who in a machine of the same make flew from
New York City to Philadelphia at the average speed of
fifty and one-half miles an hour. Aviation meets and
record breaking flights in this country and Europe now
followed in such rapid succession that the long list
would only weary the reader. In this rapid and spectacular
progress that gave man dominion over the air
and the power to surpass the eagle’s flight it is interesting
to note how well the Wrights kept in the forefront
of the era that they ushered in. Frequent changes
have greatly improved the efficiency of their machine.
In 1910 it made the greatest altitude flight, reaching a
height of 11,476 feet. In 1911 C. P. Rodgers, in successive
stages, flew in one of their biplanes from New
York City to Long Branch, California, a distance of
4,029 miles, the longest flight ever made.\par

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Recent Improvements}

\unskip\vskip 40pt\nobreak

{\noindent}
Improvements are still in rapid progress. The hydroaeroplane
has been invented. This is a slightly modified
aeroplane with equipment that will keep it afloat
on the water from which it may rise and fly at the will
of the pilot. Aviators have developed high skill in the
control of their machines in mid-air. They have at
high speed described intricate figures, sustained themselves
in inverted positions and performed the dangerous
and thrilling feat of “looping the loop” in their
swift downward flight. They have ascended high in
air, reaching an altitude of over 20,000 feet, and increased
their speed rate to 126 miles an hour. Swifter
than flight of bird and outspeeding the winged tempest,
man has cleft the highways of the air. A long line of
fatal accidents has marked his progress, but with reckless
and audacious courage he has kept his course until he
has added the “upper deep” to the realm of his dominion.\par

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Future of the Aeroplane}

\unskip\vskip 40pt\nobreak

{\noindent}
Future achievements in this new field are of course
matters of speculation. Man has flown across the Alps,
the Rocky Mountains, the English Channel, the Straits
of Florida and the Mediterranean Sea. Even now there
is reported a contemplated airship for the crossing of
the Atlantic.\par

Thus far the chief use of the aeroplane has been for
sport and armament. The leading nations of the world
have equipped their armies with flying machines from
which it will be possible at a safe height to spy out the
position of the enemy, carry messages across besieging
lines and drop destructive explosives in the midst of
hostile fortifications. What effect this will have on the
future of war can only be conjectured. Some have predicted
that when further perfected it will bring to an
end this era of vast armaments and defenses by making
them useless. If it does this, it may indeed be hailed
as the beneficent invention of this new century, for it
will have realized the vision of the poet Tennyson who
crowned with his immortal verse the century that is
gone:\par

{\advance\leftskip\parindentamount{}\advance\rightskip\parindentamount{}
\vs{1}
\begin{verse}
{\vl {\noindent}
“For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,\par}
{\vl Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;\par}
\vs{1}
{\noindent}
{\vl “Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,\par}
{\vl Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales;\par}
\vs{1}
{\noindent}
{\vl “Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dew\par}
{\vl From the nations’ airy navies grappling in the central blue;\par}
\vs{1}
{\noindent}
{\vl “Far along the world-wide whisper of the south wind rushing warm,\par}
{\vl With the standards of the peoples plunging through the thunder-storm;\par}
\vs{1}
{\noindent}
{\vl “Till the war-drum throbbed no longer, and the battle-flags were furled\par}
{\vl In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.”\par}
\end{verse}
}

\label{pg-end-line}%
\hypertarget{pg-end-line}{}%
{}

\vs{5}
{\noindent}
*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORY OF THE AEROPLANE ***\par

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\bookmark[level=1,page=1]{Table of Contents}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=the-ocean-of-air]{The Ocean of Air}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=early-attempts-at-aviation]{Early Attempts at Aviation}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=early-flying-machines]{Early Flying Machines}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=nineteenth-century-experiments]{Nineteenth Century Experiments}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=claims-of-maxim-and-ader]{Claims of Maxim and Ader}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=langleys-tandem-monoplane]{Langley’s Tandem Monoplane}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=experiments-with-gliders]{Experiments with Gliders}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=aviation-at-the-beginning-of-the-present-century]{Aviation at the Beginning of the Present Century}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=the-kite]{The Kite}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=the-plane-defined]{The “Plane” Defined}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=essentials-of-the-aeroplane]{Essentials of the Aeroplane}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=the-wright-brothers-and-their-problem]{The Wright Brothers and Their Problem}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=balancing-the-machine]{Balancing the Machine}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=at-kitty-hawk]{At Kitty Hawk}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=the-first-flight]{The First Flight}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=machine-balanced-by-warping-of-planes]{Machine Balanced by Warping of Planes}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=newspaper-reports-verified]{Newspaper Reports Verified}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=trial-flights-at-fort-meyer]{Trial Flights at Fort Meyer}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=fatal-accident]{Fatal Accident}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=wilbur-wright-wins-fame-in-france]{Wilbur Wright Wins Fame in France}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=wright-brothers-honored]{Wright Brothers Honored}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=united-states-government-requirements-successfully-met]{United States Government Requirements Successfully Met}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=recent-improvements]{Recent Improvements}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=future-of-the-aeroplane]{Future of the Aeroplane}
\hbox{}
\end{document}

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