THE TRIUMPH OF THE AEROPLANE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2359, 27 November 1908, Page 6

THE TRIUMPH OF THE AEROPLANE.

ME OEVJLLE WHIG.I-IT BREAKiS A 1.1/ RECORDS. FfJO IITOF 65 .MINUTES. WJLE ATTEMPT TO WIN £IO,OOO PRIZE. TJie practicability of the. Wright aeroplane his been illustrated in i'i remarkahh; miuuicr: at Fort- Meyer, Virginia, where -Mr Orville Wright has made, three flights which fat surpassed all previous .aeroplane ae.hiovomeuts. Mr Wright's -performances tv ere as follows: Wei! eesd ay mo rii i rig.' — Continuous (light of dbmin. f?lsee. Wednesday evening.—Continuous flight of 62min. Jo.see. Thursday morning.—Continuous flight of Gomiri. 42sec. During the flights -Mr Wright soared as high as 2ooft.

Both Mr Orville Wright and his brother, Mr Wilbur Wright, have expressed their intention of attempting, at 'lio distantrrite, to win the “Daily Mail” prize of Clo,ooo for a flight in a. hcavier-than-air machine from London to Manchester with not. more thin three stoppage* 'ior petrol. THE FLIGHTS .DESCRIBED.

The weather being most favorable on Wednesday morning, Mr Orville Wright was summoned by his assistants to Fort Meyer, Virginia. Mr Wright was accompanied by Mr Augustus Post, president of the New York Aero Club, two non-commis-sioned.. officers' of the Signal Corps, and three .newspaper correspondents. On the .ground wore about two dozen spectators. For the first flight -Mr Wright kept his machine oil an even keel .at a

height of 30ft. Then he sailed at a slightly lower level for two rounds, always having the aeroplane under perfect control .and in obedience to his lightest touch. The motor was at higher pressure than over before, and in making turns the great white, nieohn.iiical bird resembled a mighty buzzard wheeling. On the fifth round Mr Wright, ap-

parently decided that it would !>e safer to fly at a greater altitude, pj he tilted the front horizontal rudder planes and the flexible edges <•! the main planes slightly upward, ami the machine, glided aloft to a height of IGOffc. LONDON TO MANCHESTER.

Finally, in Jus last lap, 'his .lift-

eighth circuit of the parade ground, Mr Wright shut off power, and. the machine began its long gradual 'descent, coming to earth only a few yards from the starting-track. “Wlij did you not stay up three minute i longer?” exclaimed Mr Post, as hi rnsSocl forward and excitedly grasped Mr Wright’s 'hand. “What lor?” asked Mr Wright, who was as 'Unconcerned ais if he had just stepped out of a motor-car. “What for!” echoed Mr Post. “Why, don’t you know that you would Pave been, in the air an hour?” “What a. pity,” said Mr WritI had known that I would not have come down so soon. 1. had no watch with me, and supposed J. had been flying only about forty minutes. It would have been, easy enough to have kept going half an hour longer at least. , The duration of Mr W right s flight was 56miu. 3(isoc. at a speed estimated at forty miles an hour. “I suppose now,” I said "to Mr Wright, “you have no further doubts of your ability to win the ‘Daily Mail” prize?” “None,” he replied. "I am absoIptelv confident that my brother and myself have invented the most practical and useful of 'all air-craft. - We ein meet every reasonable requirement.” \ “Of course, I shall continue to make daily flights, but 1 am 'now ready for* the official tests- Who they are accomplished wo shall certainly try to fly from the London to the- Manchester offices of the ‘.Dailv Mail.’ ” ANOTHER SPLENDID FLIGHT Mr Wright again flow at night, and kept iliis reroplane aloft for one hour two minutes and thirteem seconds.

This time, he had a most brilliant company of spectators: Alt'. Taft, the •Secretary for tho Navy; Mr. Metcalfe. the Assistant-.Seerotary of War ; Air. Oliver, the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury: Air. Cooliclge, and a formidable array of Army officers in uniform, among them several generals.

“I estimate that I made a speed of labont thirty-six miles,in. hour,” said Air. Wright as lie stopped from the machine. On Thursday evening Air. Orville Wright made another successful flight of l'lir. oinin. <l2sec., beating even bis previous record by Jenin. 29soe. He travelled at the rate of thirty-

six miles an hour. alternately abreast of ajte,n-mile wind am! with it. The darts, plunges, and leaps of the mroj)lalto held thmsiieetators entranced. . A distinctive* Ten turn- of the perforimanco was the great alitiude tat wliicli the major part of the flight was made. During the last twenty minutes Mr. Wright frequently soared lip to 200 feet, and once went up as high a s --30 feet. Later Mr. Wright undo a moonlight flight, Li oil tenant Lalun. the bailouts t, also being on board. Mr. Wright 'established yet another record. Weighted with two people, the machine rose somewhat heavily, requiring one circle of the field to rise to the normal height of thirty feet. Together the two men Hew for Cmin. IGsec., surpassing the records for “doubles’' formerly made in Virginia by Mr. Orville Wright and a mechanic bv 2min. 36see.