Show Only 23 Years Ago Last the Month S s J Public Scoffed at Wrights Wright's i w First Plane t 8 tp J 0 r Q f L. L i x r w. w n. n f f. f vi ra s r 1 I 4 The modern and the primitive in airplanes are pictured here The upper photo shows the great plane piano which was built at New York for a projected flight across the Atlantic to Paris The to 10 picture is i. of the first successful ship produced by the Wright brothers Orville Wright is shown alongside it By NEA EA Service Man found his wings twenty three years ago last month not angelIc wIngs but but the wings of heavier heavier- than air flight It wa was twenty three three ears ears ago on December 17 that I a man carr man carrying in airplane driven by its own o p power owes negotiated the ambient above the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk N. N CIn C C. In the pilots pilot's seat was Orville Wright of Dayton O. O Isis His plane a crude affair equipped with an engine or of but twelve horsepower horsepower horse horse- power did a hop of but fe feet t. t It H was in the air but twelve seconds A NEW EPOCH But that little hope signified a anew anew new epoch in human history It assured the conquering of the skies sIdes Sixteen years later Captain Alcock Alcock Al- Al cock was winging the Atlantic ocean A few years more and intrepid intrepid in- in trepid American army officers were flying ing around the world orld and Lieutenant Lieutenant Lieu Lieu- tenant Byrd was charting chartin an air route to the north pole The twenty third anniversary of than heavier light flight finds th the same wings that th the Wright brothers broth broth- ers devised carr carrying ring man to ever every Corner or of the earth There was dIspute about Wrights Wright's flight being the first successful ul one Other e experimenters claimed the same honor notably a Frenchman who contended he made a short air trip near Paris about 1896 1396 But the Kitty Hawk demonstration tion was credibly witnessed and is accepted by most historians as giving giving ing to America the name or of birthplace birthplace birth place of the airplane SMALL NOTICE AT FIRST At the time small notice was given and the general publIc still doubted that flight by man was pos pos- sible It was not until two years ears later when the Wright brothers having built a better machine made their next public appearance at Dayton that the world realized the dream of centurIes had act aIly materialized materialized ma- ma that the tales of ancient mythology were now a a. realIty THE LINCOLN BEACH EYS The accomplishment then was widely heralded though to some eXtent extent eX- eX tent there still persisted doubt that aviation ever would amount to an anything any any- thing in a practical sense Little by little jeering jeering- ceased Stunt fliers of the Lincoln type traveled the country visualizing visualizing ing the airplanes airplane's possibilities possibilities- most of them paying one by one with their lives for this spread of aviation education Step by step the science of flIght pushed forward Finally came th the World war It was then that aviation aviation avia- avia tion really came into its own Tactics Tactics Tac- Tac tics of war were upset as they had hadnot hadnot not been since the Inv invention or of gun un powder After the war commercial utilization of the airplane came rushing to the fore Orville Wright still lives aves and contributes contributes con con- tributes to aviation's further advancement ad ad- Wilbur Wright his brother died in 1912 Copyright 1926 NEA Service Inc o |