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Aviation History
1909
1909 - 0127.PDF
MARCH 6, 1909. the Hon. C. S. Rolls, who, as a sometime friend, has been granted the honour of being the first Englishman who has been allowed to order a Wright aeroplane for use in Britain, we are persona grata at the Wright establishment. The shed is closed as we draw up to it, but as the car comes to a standstill a mechanic puts out his head, nods a friendly good morning, and goes to inform Messrs. Wright of our arrival. " Do you know who that is ? " asks one of the party in reference to our self-appointed herald, and answers the question himself: " He is Mr. Lovelace, who had that ill-luck with the airship at the Exhibition in London last summer." Meantime the second mechanic has rolled back the huge sliding doors that furnish an opening of more than 40 ft. to enable the aeroplane to be taken in and out of its house. One's eyes kindle at a moment like this, on seeing for the first time the machine that folk have read about in all parts of the civilised world, and when on the tip-toe of expectation to catch a first glimpse of the brothers who will go down in history as the first of mankind to ride the wind at will. One had just time to note with surprise that the four- year-old machine was spick and span, with aluminium paint over every part except the canvas, when a pale little man with a thin refined face, small regular features, very blue eyes, closely set and with somewhat of a poet's expression in them, a cap slightly too small for him, a stick, and a limp, came into view round one corner of the machine and, after a cheery " Good morning, sister," greeted the other members of the party with a quiet cordiality that gives genuine pleasure to a welcome. He need not have said " sister" for any stranger to have guessed the relationship; you could not mistake it. " How little he is " was the thought that came in mind to me when first I set eyes on Mr. J. M. Barrie, and that was also an initial impression concerning Mr. Orville Wright. Before one had time to observe him more at the moment, however, a clean-shaven man, scarcely any taller, fair, tremendously active of movement, clad in an old cap, a black leather motor cyclist's type of coat, and trousers that were plainly strangers to the press, came forward in the characteristic act of rolling-up a ball of string and thrusting it into one of his pockets, He hailed " sister" also; but one would need to be told of the relationship, so utterly unlike his sister or his brother is Mr. Wilbur Wright. These three are the youngest members of a family of seven • among whom there is but one girl—the baby of them all—and who lost their mother a score of years ago. The " great little men " have been inseparable companions from the days when they could first toddle, and the greatest trial of their i lives—their separation on account of their simultaneous demonstrations of human flight in France and America— is happily overpast, for they are working together again, consequently they are as happy as schoolboys. Perhaps this is why I find everything about them exactly the opposite from what I had been led to expect by multi- farious written accounts. I have never seen them taciturn, or curt, or secretive, or any of the other things which I had been led to believe were their outstanding characteristics. "Well, if I talked a lot I should be like the parrot, which is the bird that speaks most and flies least," Mr. Wilbur Wright once remarked to Mrs. Griffith Brewer ; yet in the course of each day he talks as much as most men, only his words are to the point, even if they are jocular, and the sole point he has in mind is achieving more and more perfect flight. You have only to study the man to conclude that to his mind, as all the news- paper publicity and all the conversational tributes in the world will not help him to fly one whit the better, he has no use for either. Even as he turns from a camera whenever possible, so he grudges time spent apart from his proper work. Brevity is the characteristic of his utterances, as of those of his brother, by whom Mr. Wilbur is styled " Wil," for he, in turn, calls Mr. Orville " Orv." The pupils are the " Fledglings," Mr. Wilbur is " Teacher," the Comte de Lambert is " Jonah " (merely because he failed to start thrice in one particular direction), M. Paul Tissandier is " Little Tissandier," Captain L. Ge"rardville is the " Capt'n," and the main thing about him—albeit " we never mention it "—is that a fearful mystery surrounds his weight, which he firmly believes to be only 10 lbs. heavier than " Little Tissan- dier"; but "somehow the feel of the machine's more different than only that much,'' hence the genial officer in question has been dubbed " 4839 Gerrard," among other nicknames. Every difficulty encountered, or trouble experienced with the machine, is an " ailment," for which "we must find a cure." When "Teacher" has made up his mind which "Fledgling" he will take with him, he cries out " Here, , you're elected," and the chosen one is expected to scramble promptly into his seat. The brothers present a case of absolute contrasts working in such perfect harmony as to gain every advan- tage to be derived from two distinct types of intellect being; brought to bear on a single proposition. Both are quite short, well-proportioned men of infinite patience. They smile readily, give you a very firm grasp when shaking hands, and express themselves with more than common clearness; but for the rest, you believe they are brothers merely because folk whose word you cannot doubt tell you so. Making due allowance for the fact that Mr. Orville is only beginning to recover from the effects of his accident, nevertheless one realises in many minor ways that he does not normally possess the lightning-like rapidity of movement characteristic of Mr. Wilbur, whose walk is a series of rapid strides, in which his legs seem to have an inclination to get slightly in advance of his body. The quick turns of the head, the sudden darting glances that he will cast at sky, horizon, machine or man, taking in all he wants in an instant, and the energy and decisiveness of his utterances are all in keeping. He is plainly a man accustomed to arrive at his decisions while things are yet happening. His deep-set eyes are well spaced, and he rarely opens the lid's fully. When he does it is for a moment only, as to glance into the air, usually with a sideward swing of the head and a wrinkling of the brows, one gathering the impression that he possesses the power of actually viewing the wind, so penetrating is the gaze. His features are large, strong, well-cut, and in handsome proportion, the top of the head being quite bald and the face clean shaven, with thin straight lips, the corners of which sometimes play when his features break into a smile, on which occasions the eyes also laugh at you. When smiling, too, the mouth broadens and you become aware for the first time of a line that leads from either side of the cheek to about the corners of the mouth-—those two lines which the eye of the camera seems to dwell on as the sole feature of the " flying-man," but which the human eye does not discover under any other circumstances. Truth to tell, the camera is no friend either to the brothers or to their sister. I have never seen a photograph or a representation on the bioscope that portrays any one of the trio truthfully. ( To be continued.) 129
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