| Show avi APO r 4 4 Z 5 n e oba qa ELMO SCOTT WATSON lit LIE seventeenth of 0 december of this near ear marks the twenty fifth anniversary 0 of one of the most important tant dates in the history of mankind for it Is the anniversary of the first successful flight in a pow er operated airplane in recognition of the importance of this event tre tile united states stales government has sponsored an international civil aeronautics conference in washington to which uncle sam bain has invited representatives of 55 nations to come and help him honor one of his sons of whom he be Is justly proud wilbur wright the pioneer of american aviation this sliver silver jubilee celebration which uncle sam lias has arranged for this month recalls the epochal achievement of two young ohio brothers aho he realized the dream of mankind for centuries and startled the world with the news that on december IT 17 1903 nt at kitty N C they had made a successful night flight in a n power driven airplane what if the light lasted only twelve seconds and the distance covered was only feet the fact remained that they accomplished what hat others lied had tailed failed to do and there and then they laid the foundations for a development in a new activity by man which in the comparatively short time of twenty five live years has become one of the greatest of modern miracles to understand the importance of the achievement of wllbur wilbur and onille wright it will be helpful to go far back into history early carly stories of nights flights belong in the realm of pure legend there Is the fiction of Dea dalus who was to havi have flown from crete where he had been in pals prison n for revealing the secrets of the laby cintli it has been pointed out that his was proby 6 the first attempt to adopt sails ln in greek wS vZ lers and the astonished cretans caetans istook ml for wings the first sails which they beheld but 1 a I flying model in imitation of a dove made of wood id d made to fly by regulated mechanics is said to have been constructed prior to ago C B C and the satires of published in B C ridiculed the various arlous means which had been suggested to enable men and ships to soar through ji the air which shows that the idea of flying was fairly common then during the reign of emperor kero the scientists endeavored to build iome machine which would conquer the air in 1670 Pran francisco cisco lana an italian jesuit pub fished a study on the physical properties of air far in advance of the general knowledge of its his time ile he proposed a vessel suspended from four hollow copper globes from which the air was to be evacuated by filling them with water and then allowing all water to run out through a pipe 34 feet long but concluded that god cod shall never allow such a machine to be successful in practice and added for iho does not see that no city would be secure from surprise as aa a ship hip could descend at any hour from the very most places and from it issue men intent on ruin ruhn what appears to be the first authentic record of an aerial trip was that of t 1483 1783 when a frenchman named rosier took a trip in a balloon hull built i by two friends the they filled A large cloth bag with liot hot nir air and attached to it 11 a fire pot to keep a continuous supply of air in the balloon and sent it up with animals as the first passengers paa when the animals came down alive roster rosier enthusiastically offered himself as the first human passenger ile he finally did succeed in getting up and Is reputed to he the first man who ever took a trip into the air that was the begin beginning nin of what Is now known as lighter than air craft one of the lie first recorded attempts to build a heavier than air flying machine which would lift I 1 itself without the use of gas was made in 1500 by bv the artist leonardo da vinci ile he made several small models and la Is reputed to have gotten some of them diem in the air in 1812 two englishmen named spring fellow and hanson built a model that resembled closek some of our aerial mono planes it was driven by a one cI cylinder Inder steam en gine and succeeded in getting into the air be cause of lack of money the englishmen never got farther than tills this after this little progress was madi made for a iong ion time until the hie weighs and langley in america in germany and one or two french men started their experiments with gliders and it I 1 iwas from these glider gilder experiments that the hie airplane evolved these experiments de principles which made it possible to con fro an airplane in flight fight that Is to keep beep it stable during this period a power driven machine was developed by dr samuel P langley in 1801 ile he made several models for which power was wag fur nashed by rubber hands ile he finally succeeded in constructing a power plant big enough to drive n P full size ehe plane hut but the machine crashed into the potomac river during its test in september 1903 langle ingle I was wa ridiculed for the crush crash of his llop machine mac lilno which has since been proved to have teen been capable of flight fight people scorned him and lie he died a fal failure lure only to be granted his recognition in fit antler another decade on december 17 1903 a cluber loo ing contrad tion alon called a flying machine and in d made by two unknowns orville and wilbur wright glit was pushed onto a I 1 anway it at kitty N C the wright bro brothers thors hail bad been experimenting with ith for fir icara cars and the lights flights of their N I 1 rk 4 1 I t rs ak V k 14 W li fa vv 4 V s I 1 A Ta azam phoil Pv oto arn ican air glider in 1902 1002 convinced them of the efficiency of their system of maintaining equilibrium before they left their camp at kitty hawk in 1902 they were at work on the general design of a new machine which they proposed to operate with ith engine driven propellers unable to get the type of 0 en engine ine they wanted anted they built their own finally the engine and the airplane were assembled endless difficulties ensued when it carne came time tor for the first trial the brothers tossed a coin to see who would lly fly the plane wllbur wilbur won the first light flight ended when the airplane climbed a few feet beet stalled and then settled to the ground slightly damaged the alie plane was repaired for the second attempt which proved to be the first successful flight of a man in a heavier than machine wllbur wilbur having used his chance in the unsuccessful attempt on the fourteenth the right to the next nest trial belonged to orvllle orville the engine was heated up and the wire that held the machine to the track was released the machine started forward into the wind wllbur wilbur ron ran nt at the side holding the wing to balance it on the track the croft craft faced a 27 mlle mile wind the machine lifted from the ground after a 40 foot run and the course of the first flight was erratic due to irregularity of the air and partly to lack of esperi ence in handling tills this machine the control of the front levator was difficult on account of its being balanced too near the center this gave it a tendency to turn itself when started so that it turned too far on one side and then too far on the other As a result the machine would rise suddenly to about ten feet and then as suddenly dart for the ground A sudden dart when a little wier oer a hundred feet from the end of the track or a little over feet from the point at which it rose into the air ended the flight fight As the velocity of wind was over 35 feet per second and the speed of the machine over the ground against this wind 10 feet per second the speed of the machine relative to the air was avei over 45 feet per second and the length of the flight was equivalent to a flight of feet made in calm air tills this night flight lasted only twelve seconds hut but it was nevertheless the first in the history lil story of the world in which a machine carrying a man had raised itself by its own power into the air in full flight had sailed forward without re of speed and had finally landed at a point as high id b as that from which it started that vas twenty five years ago aviation ANia tion de slowly despite the pioneers who lie saw its possibilities unless a world war lind find developed it Is probable that aviation al atlon today would be in fit alic doldrums previous our to 1914 when the europeans at war were striving to develop tile airplane as a weapon of destruction the aviation enthus enthusiasts lasts were few the war forced the airplane to the front after it had find hibernated for eleven years following the historic flig flight glit of the wright plane the aircraft of 1913 was but little different front from that of 1903 3 lu in 1910 the american navy had bad imly one airplane under the charge of a lieu tenant who was the ardys air force pilot ground squad and mechanic but the world war showed the possibilities ol of the airplane and when pence peace came the airplane hogan began to be det developed eloped as an instrument otreace of peace and commerce the effect ol of the world conflict nil nii the development of civil aviation in the united states was profound many blany new aircraft factories had been built hundreds of aeronautical engineers and designers were given an eunity to demonstrate their skill pilots were taught to fly nearly planes were manufactured scores of thousands of artisans became skilled in aircraft production all of which created a personnel and material out of which vas to develop the ewt war N ar aviation which differs so widely from european civil development willi pence no inconsiderable percentage of those who had been engaged in the manufacture of nir aircraft craft or trained us its pilots became tic interested in the civil possibilities As a result america today Is doing a prodigious amount of civil flying A great transcontinental system of air mall express and passenger service rapidly growing has been in actual operation for two years air service operators are flourishing in hundreds of cities executives are flying their own airplanes in the conduct of dally daily boguess J nore akan than a thousand airports are in the manufacturing industry Is behind on its orders while the public Is best familiar with the airplane as a mall mail express and passenger carrier it Is il used ed in a wide variety of pursuits such as aerial photography airplane dusting of crops forest patrol work scientific studies ner aerial I 1 al advertising geographical study spotting schools of fish observing traffic congestion searching for lost persons surveying map making representation of properties engineering surveys carrying supplies to inaccessible regions first old aid to devastated cities and in many other ways there are now 17 air mall mail companies operating oa 25 lines with important additional routes scheduled for early operation the mail planes are flying now cow at the rate of more than DA miles a year and in 1929 12 will fly by more than miles abear the mall mail planes tire are flying 94 04 per er cent of the total mileage scheduled and that chrt record includes night flying in both directions over miles milea of lighted airways the air mall planes now traverse 37 states with scheduled stops planes flying united states mall mail this year will vill alv more than half as much us its the total mileage flown by mall mail express and passenger planes in europe the post office department predicts that within two years every city of will le he on an air mall mail and transport route that soon mall planes will carry pounds of niall mall daily that 1000 pounds of air mall mail will be a rural load that within five years all first class mall between ettles cities will be carried by airplane that the planes will carry mall mail clerks nho lie will sort cort the mall while the plane Is in transit others point out that the air mall mail lines will soon be extended to south america already we have foreign lines to british columbia eastern canada mexico city and a contract has been let for a r route to the panama canal zone with a possible extension to dutch Gu guistina itina united states department of commerce scouts are now working on air lines to latin america knowing that this speedy transportation hill give america a real trade advantage over europe in addition to the air mall mileage the air passenger serl sen ices ces hae expanded rapidly in recent cent mon tsi the pacific coast area with its great elites took the lend lead in presiding dally daily air passenger sen ice some of the important por tant strictly passenger lines now in operation include thos efrom san francisco to los angeles which filch trip in three hours los angeles to san in fit 70 minutes los ios angeles to phoenix rhoen lx alx A ariz iz to in three hours los ios angeles to ai salt luke lake ift six while there Is it a regular passenger serece ice from los angeles to seattle Sent llo a i dist c 1 in it 11 hours in jim alie middle wet I 1 regular dally passenger ealce Is provided b wn een the twin cities alit nal chicago fargo and th the twin cities chicago and cleveland chicago Clil cago and st louis loub and achl cago detroit cleveland rind chicago to omalia tri trl motored 12 passenger planes are now operating front from san francisco to chicago a flight of 20 hours ey by june 1929 1029 it will be possible to fly in large trl tri motored planes equipped il with ith pullman berths from new york to tile the const coast such Is the record to which this his lusty loulla american aviation can point on its twenty fifth birthday and all of tills this amazing develop development mont grew out nut of a 11 12 second root foot flight fight by orvllle orville and wilbur wright at kitty hawk N C on do ember 17 1 1 |
