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Aviation History
1909
1909 - 0155.PDF
MARCH 20, 19c 9. HOW WILBUR WRIGHT RIDES THE WIND. By H. MASSAC BUIST. WE had turned the car off the road into the enclosure at Pont Long and were in the act of alighting to thread our way out of the long string of other vehicles, the owners of which had preceded us on to the practice ground, when a whirring noise overhead and the casting of a shadow for an instant caused us to gaze upwards. At that moment the 40-foot broad biplane, the appear- ance of which has been rendered familiar throughout the world by photographic and other reproductions innumer- able, swept over our heads not more than 20 feet above the tops of the cars. There were two men on the machine, and it was the pupil, the Comte de Lambert, who was controlling the machine. It was his eighteenth lesson, and at that time he had been practising for a total of not more than four hours. Yet the master seated beside him was allowing him not to cross the line of vehicles, but to fly deliberately over and along it, so that it would have been absolutely impossible to have alighted quickly without disaster. That was my first glimpse of the Wright aeroplane in actual flight. By the time we had walked a couple of the biplane, which is mounted on two wheels, is drawn into the open, one notices that the canvas is worn and torn, soiled and burnt, patched and stained, and tattooed with tintacks. There are stretches as big as a towel that have been sown and tacked on because the original fabric has been destroyed by one means or another. On the other hand, there are bits in the canvas that have evidently been burnt through by placing a lighted cigar or cigarette on them. Such trifles, however, do not worry the Wrights, for they do not fly by a hair's breadth, as it were, but in virtue of having devised a system that works. As you follow the little party of half-a-dozen or so who push the weather-stained machine to the starting- rail, one or two things strike you as being rather peculiar. In the first place, you notice that it is being bumped about a good bit. So you glance over the Champ d'Aviation. Regarded as an expanse of over four miles in circumference, it certainly answers to the description of flat land; but when any part of it is considered in detail, it is impossible to discover a single square yard of level. It is composed of a series of close-set hummocks " Flight " Copyright Photo. TRYING'THE ENGINE.—Here you see Wilbur Wright, with his left-hand feeling the water-circulating pipe, andhis right busy with an oil-can, Orville standing beside him suggesting and discussing in characteristic fashion. You may know the machine is not yet ready for flight because the starting weight has not been hauled up. hundred yards or so to the huge brown shed the lesson had been voluntarily concluded by bringing the machine to earth hard by the starting rail, in readiness to be mounted and launched on another flight with another pupil aboard. What happens when Wilbur Wright wants to fly ? Perhaps the best course will be to endeavour to give a more or less consecutive account of the processes gone through. When the big doors of the reddish-brown •shed have been rolled back, the four-year-old aeroplane is revealed, with all the woodwork rendered resplendent •with aluminium paint, with which the propellers are .also treated. This is not for ornament, but is a pre- cautionary measure, because long use in all sorts of weathers having rendered the woodwork dirty, it has been found that the coating of aluminium paint serves the dual purpose of a preservative and a means of throw- ing any cracks or fractures into relief. The back of the machine faces the opening of the shed, and as soon as or mounds, some almost hemispherical and anything from a foot to 20 ins. in diameter and from 6 ins. to 16 ins. high. Certainly no aeroplane fitted with wheels could be run over or let down on such country. Accordingly, it is not surprising to learn that the Pau authorities have leased another and .smoother ground nearer the city for the use of those experimenters whose flying machines are fitted with wheels. Yet the Wright aeroplane has not a single spring, pneumatic cushion or other shock-absorber of any sort, whereas all the wheel machines employ means of deadening the shock of landing even on smooth ground. When the American aeroplane is placed on the starting-rail, an examination of it proves that the reports that have been put abroad to the effect that it is crudely built are not borne out in fact. The design is extremely simple and bold, and there is not the slightest hint of " finnikiness " anywhere; but the work is all quite well finished. Indeed, the oniy feature thac can have given 157
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