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| Professor Langley's aerodrome crashes. |
Cortland Standard, Wednesday Evening,
December 9, 1903.
Airship Fails Again. On Reaching End of Tramway Broke In Two and Turned Over.
Washington,
Dec. 9Airship Fails Again. On Reaching End of Tramway Broke In Two and Turned Over.
—Under weather conditions which were regarded as perfect the Langley ship or aeroplane was given a second trial a short distance from Washington down the Potomac, the result being the complete wreck of the airship.
Everything had been in readiness for the trial for some days, so that it was felt that all that was needed for the test was the right sort of wind and weather. Yesterday afternoon these conditions presented themselves.
On the word being given to launch the aeroplane it glided smoothly along the launching tramway until the end of the tramway was reached when, on being left to itself, the aeroplane broke in two and turned completely over, precipitating Professor Charles Manley, who was operating it, into icy water beneath the tangled mass.
A number of launches containing newspaper men and others immediately steered for the spot, but before they could reach Professor Manley one of the assistants leaped overboard and brought him aboard the houseboat on which the launching tramway was laid.
Professor Langley was present to witness the test and appeared crestfallen when he saw the product of months of study and labor, combined with an enormous expenditure of money, disappear beneath the water.
Many Smithsonian experts as well as a number of officers of the army were spectators at the trial.
The San Francisco Call, Friday, December 18,
1903
AIRSHIP’S FLIGHT IS A SUCCESS
Craft Sails Skyward Without Aid of a Balloon.AIRSHIP’S FLIGHT IS A SUCCESS
Special dispatch to the Call
Norfolk, Va., December 17.
The problem of aerial flight without the aid of a balloon has been solved by Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton, Ohio. Today at Kitty Hawk, on the coast of North Carolina, they successfully navigated a flying machine of their own invention for three miles in the teeth of a twenty-one mile gale, and, picking their point of descent, easily landed the machine there.
During the trial Wilbur Wright occupied the driver’s seat and steered the apparatus.
The flight began from a platform constructed upon a high sand hill near Kitty Hawk. The machine was propelled by a gasoline engine in the floor of the car.
The first mile was covered and then Orville Wright declared the invention a success; but it was not until the third mile had been accomplished that the inventor cast his eyes about for a suitable landing place, found it, and, with his invention under perfect control, slowly let his machine alight as easily and gracefully as a bird.
Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, December 18, 1903.
FLYING MACHINE SOARS THREE MILES IN TEETH OF HIGH WIND OVER SAND HILLS AND WAVES OF CAROLINA COAST.
No Balloon Attached To Aid It.
The problem of aerial navigation without the
use of a balloon has been solved at last. Over the sand hills of the North
Carolina coast yesterday, near Kitty Hawk, two Ohio men proved that they could
soar through the air in a flying machine of their own construction, with the
power to steer it and speed it at will. This, too, in the face of a wind
blowing at the confirmed velocity of twenty-one miles an hour. Like a monster bird, the invention hovered
above the breakers and circled over the rolling sand hills at the command of
its navigator and, after soaring for three miles, it gracefully descended to
earth again and rested lightly upon the spot selected by the man in the car as
a suitable landing place. While the United States government has been
spending thousands of dollars in an effort to make practicable the ideas of
Professor Langley of the Smithsonian Institute, Wilbur and Orville Wright, two
brothers, natives of Dayton, O., have quietly, even secretly, perfected their
invention, and put it to a successful test. They are not yet ready that the world should
know the methods they have adopted in conquering the air, but the
Virginian-Pilot is able to state authentically the nature of their invention,
its principle and its chief dimensions.
The idea of the box kite has been adhered to
strictly in the basic formation of the flying machine. A huge framework of
light timbers, 33 feet wide, five feet deep and five feet across the top forms
the machine proper. This is covered with a tough, but light canvas. In the
center, and suspended just below the bottom plane is the small gasoline engine
which furnishes the motive power for the propelling and elevating wheels. There
are two six-bladed propellers, one arranged just below the center of the frame,
so gauged as to exert an upward force when in motion, and the other extends
horizontally to the rear from the center of the car, furnishing the forward
impetus. Protruding from the center of the car is a huge fan-shaped rudder of
canvass, stretch upon a frame of wood. This rudder is controlled by the
navigator and may be moved to each side, raised or lowered.
Start Was Success
Wilbur Wright, the chief inventor of the
machine, sat in the operator’s car and when all was ready his brother
unfastened the catch which held the invention at the top of the slope. The big
box began to move slowly at first, acquiring velocity as it went, and when half
way down the hundred feet the engine was started. The propeller in the rear
immediately began to revolve at a high rate of speed, and when the end of the
incline was reached the machine shot out into space without a perceptible fall.
By this time the elevating propeller was also in motion, and, keeping its
altitude, the machine slowly began to go higher and higher until it finally
soared sixty feet above the ground. Maintaining this height by the action of
the under wheel, the navigator increased the revolutions of the rear propeller,
and the forward speed of the huge affair increased until a velocity of eight
miles an hour was attained. All this time the machine headed into a twenty-one
mile wind.
The little crowd of fisher folk and coast
guards, who have been watching the construction of the machine with unconcerned
curiosity since September 1st, were amazed. They endeavored to race over the
sand and keep up with the thing of the air, but it soon distanced them and
continued its flight alone, save the man in the car. Steadily it pursued its way, first tacking
to port, then to starboard, and then driving straight ahead. “It
is a success,” declared Orville Wright to the crowd on the beach after the
first mile had been covered. But the inventor waited. Not until he had
accomplished three miles, putting the machine through all sorts of maneuvers en
route, was he satisfied. Then he selected a suitable place to land, and,
gracefully circling, drew his invention slowly to the earth, where it settled,
like some big bird, in the chosen spot. “Eureka,” he cried, as did the alchemist of
old.
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| photo of flight on December 17, 1903 |
Wright Brothers’ Statement to Associated Press,
January 5, 1903.
DAYTON, Ohio
It had not been our intention to make any
detailed public statement concerning the private trials of our power
"Flyer" on the 17th of December last; but since the contents of a
private telegram announcing to our folks at home the success of our trials, was
dishonestly communicated to the newspapermen at the Norfolk office, and led to
the imposition upon the public, by persons who never saw the "Flyer"
or its flights, of a fictitious story incorrect in almost every detail; and
since this story together with several pretended interviews or statements,
which were fakes, pure and simple, have been widely disseminated, we feel impelled
to make some correction.
The real facts were as follows:
On the morning of December 17th, between the hours of 10:30 o'clock and noon, four flights were made, two by Orville Wright and two by Wilbur Wright. The starts were all made from a point on the level sand about 200 feet west of our camp, which is located a quarter of a mile north of the Kill Devil sand hill, in Dare County, North Carolina. The wind at the time of the flights had a velocity of 2 miles an hour at ten o'clock, and 24 miles an hour at noon, as recorded by the anemometer at the Kitty Hawk Weather Bureau Station. This anemometer is thirty feet from the ground. Ground measurements, made with a hand anemometer at a height of four feet from the ground, showed a velocity of about 22 miles when the first flight was made, and 20 1/2 miles at the time of the last one.
The flights were directly against the wind. Each time the machine started from the level ground by its own power alone with no assistance from gravity, or any other source whatever.
After a run of about 40 feet along a monorail track, which held the machine eight inches from the ground, it rose from the track and under the direction of the operator, climbed upward on an inclined course until eight or ten feet from the ground was reached; after the course was kept as near horizontal as the wind gusts and the limited skill of the operator would permit. Into the teeth of a December gale the "Flyer" made its way forward with a speed of ten miles an hour over the ground and 30-35 miles an hour air.
It had previously been decided that for reasons of personal safety these first trials would be made as close to the ground as possible. The height chosen was scarcely sufficient for maneuvering in so gusty a wind and with previous acquaintance with the conduct of the machine and its controlling mechanisms. Consequently the first flight was short.
The succeeding flights rapidly increased in length and at the fourth trial a flight of fifty-nine seconds was made, in which time the machine flew a little more than a half a mile through the air, and a distance of 852 feet over the ground. The landing was due to a slight error of judgment on the part of the aviator. After passing over a little hummock of sand, in attempting to bring the machine down to the desired height, the operator turned the rudder too far; and the machine flew downward more quickly than had been expected. Reverse movement of the rudder was a fraction of a second too late to prevent the machine from touching the ground and thus ending the flight. The whole occurrence occupied little, if any, more than one second of time.
Only those who are acquainted with practical aeronautics can appreciate the difficulties of attempting the first trails of a flying machine in a twenty five mile gale. As winter already was well set in, we should have postponed our trails to a more favorable season, but for the fact that we were determined, before returning home, to know whether the machine possessed sufficient power to fly, sufficient strength to sustain the shocks of landings, and sufficient capacity of control to make flight safe in boisterous winds as well as in calm air.
When these points had been definitely established, we at once packed our goods and returned home, knowing that the age of the flying machine had come at last.
From the beginning we have employed entirely new principles of control; and as all the experiments have been conducted at our own expense without assistance from any individual or institution, we do not feel ready at present to give out any pictures or detailed description of the machine.
The real facts were as follows:
On the morning of December 17th, between the hours of 10:30 o'clock and noon, four flights were made, two by Orville Wright and two by Wilbur Wright. The starts were all made from a point on the level sand about 200 feet west of our camp, which is located a quarter of a mile north of the Kill Devil sand hill, in Dare County, North Carolina. The wind at the time of the flights had a velocity of 2 miles an hour at ten o'clock, and 24 miles an hour at noon, as recorded by the anemometer at the Kitty Hawk Weather Bureau Station. This anemometer is thirty feet from the ground. Ground measurements, made with a hand anemometer at a height of four feet from the ground, showed a velocity of about 22 miles when the first flight was made, and 20 1/2 miles at the time of the last one.
The flights were directly against the wind. Each time the machine started from the level ground by its own power alone with no assistance from gravity, or any other source whatever.
After a run of about 40 feet along a monorail track, which held the machine eight inches from the ground, it rose from the track and under the direction of the operator, climbed upward on an inclined course until eight or ten feet from the ground was reached; after the course was kept as near horizontal as the wind gusts and the limited skill of the operator would permit. Into the teeth of a December gale the "Flyer" made its way forward with a speed of ten miles an hour over the ground and 30-35 miles an hour air.
It had previously been decided that for reasons of personal safety these first trials would be made as close to the ground as possible. The height chosen was scarcely sufficient for maneuvering in so gusty a wind and with previous acquaintance with the conduct of the machine and its controlling mechanisms. Consequently the first flight was short.
The succeeding flights rapidly increased in length and at the fourth trial a flight of fifty-nine seconds was made, in which time the machine flew a little more than a half a mile through the air, and a distance of 852 feet over the ground. The landing was due to a slight error of judgment on the part of the aviator. After passing over a little hummock of sand, in attempting to bring the machine down to the desired height, the operator turned the rudder too far; and the machine flew downward more quickly than had been expected. Reverse movement of the rudder was a fraction of a second too late to prevent the machine from touching the ground and thus ending the flight. The whole occurrence occupied little, if any, more than one second of time.
Only those who are acquainted with practical aeronautics can appreciate the difficulties of attempting the first trails of a flying machine in a twenty five mile gale. As winter already was well set in, we should have postponed our trails to a more favorable season, but for the fact that we were determined, before returning home, to know whether the machine possessed sufficient power to fly, sufficient strength to sustain the shocks of landings, and sufficient capacity of control to make flight safe in boisterous winds as well as in calm air.
When these points had been definitely established, we at once packed our goods and returned home, knowing that the age of the flying machine had come at last.
From the beginning we have employed entirely new principles of control; and as all the experiments have been conducted at our own expense without assistance from any individual or institution, we do not feel ready at present to give out any pictures or detailed description of the machine.
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