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Aviation History
1910
1910 - 0708.PDF
[pjGHT] SEPTEMBER 3, 1910. WITH THE WRIGHTS IN AMERICA. By GRIFFITH BREWER. Apologia. WHEN I accepted the hospitality of the Wright Bros., I had no idea of publishing the observations of a private visit, nor did I give any hint to them of such a possibility. It was only after waving farewell at Dayton Railway Station that the thought developed of giving to my fellow members of the Royal Aero Club some small idea of what is being done at Dayton, so that when the pioneeis of flight have an opportunity to return to England, we in the Royal Aero Club may not have followed the general lead like a flock of sheep, and have shown by our actions and our talk in their absence, that out of sight from England means also out of mind. I therefore crave indulgence if the writing of this account is indiscreet, and I fear it must be so, because it was the only work that could be found for my hands to do on the voyage back on the " Baltic." We are apt to forget in our desire to see flying general, that we owe everything to these two American scientists. If it had not been for their discarding the then accepted scientific data and starting at the beginning and building up their own tables and diagrams, they might still have been floundering in endless experi ments together with others who have since been successful. It is no use deceiving ourselves into the belief that it was the introduction of the petrol engine that gave the Wrights the opportunity that was denied to others, because when they flew they carried sufficient margin of power to have flown with the power available twenty years earlier. In 1892 Maxim built a machine with sufficient power to fly, but all the modern petrol engines in the world would not be able to coax that machine to go up in the air to-day. I am as con fident that we should not be flying to-day were it not for the Wrights as I am that the pneumatic tyre would still be unknown to the world were it not for Dunlop. I am also confident that if we can get these pioneers of aviation to spare us some of their attention, that the cause of flight in England will be considerably enhanced. It is therefore with a feeling of pleasant anticipation that we may look forward to a visit from our American friends towards the end of the present year. The First Mechanical Flights. I never thoroughly realised the absurdity of the so-called mystery of the early flights made by the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright, until this August, when I visited the first flying field. I knew before that the field was surrounded by a fence, and this fence, with its suggestion of secrecy, naturally implied a high palisade such as we call fences in England. Instead, however, of the 6 ft. split-oak palisading to obstruct the view, I found nothing but a row of low posts, supporting four rows of wires, to keep the farmer and other wayfar ers from looking their fill as they travelled down the main road between Springfield and Dayton, both towns of over 100,000 inhabitants. Moreover, if one main road bounding one side of the ground were not sufficient, then a cross-road bounding another side of the land afforded equal facilities ; whilst three electric railway cars per hour also passed along the track adjoining the main road, and allowed their fifty occupants to view the whole ground, and if sufficiently interested to alight at "Simms" station, which abuts directly on one corner of the land rented by the brothers for their early experiments in 1904, and now used by them to-day as a school for their pupils. Newspapers have always been accustomed to receive voluminous copy from those experimenting with so-called flying machines, the necessity of giving a full report seeming to most experimenters to be of greater importance than the accomplishment of something to report on ; so when the two quiet young men squabbled amongst themselves over the theories of flight during their leisure at home, and put their differences of opinion to the test outdoors in their vacation, it was natural for the newspapers to regard these holiday pranks of no serious importance. As it was in 1903 to 1906, so it is to-day. The work of building machines and testing alterations is proceeding in the same methodical manner as the development of a motor launch, and those genial brothers are getting as much fun out of it as Tom Thornycroft gets in making himself hot and dirty down on the " Enchantress." Manufacturing Facilities. - I had expected to find the Wright Co. installed in an up-to-date factory adjoining the flying ground, and Wilbur and Orville Wright sleeping on beds up amongst the rafters of the shed, and cooking tasty meals between whiles. Instead I found them living with their father and sister in the wooden house they had grown up in from the time when they were all children. The workshop where they make their engines is within a quarter of a mile, and is the same where six years ago they were turning out the Wright bicycles which hold their own to-day. Even closer to the house is the little printing works, where before making bicycles, they expended their unlimited energy and ingenuity not only in printing a newspaper, but in making the printing machine, which they constructed out of pieces of wood and bits of string. This Robinson Crusoe printing press was only designed for home use, for it invariably refused to go unless one of the brothers were looking on. The factory where the flying machines are built is three miles away on the other side of the city, and there in a large airy ground floor building some six machines were in various stages of construc tion. One machine just on completion attracted my attention, as it enabled me to compare the tail used by the Wright Brothers in America with the tail fitted by Mr. Rolls to his French-built Wright machine just before his fatal accident. The differences in construc tion were very considerable, the American pattern being considerably stronger than the French pattern, whilst a clearance of 11 ins. between the propellers and the tail frame showed a considerable increase in the margin of safety compared, with a 3 in. clearance on the French designed tail. The maximum working strain that can be brought on to the tail is less than 70 lbs., and this tail took the strain of Wilbur Wright's weight and my own, or over 250 lbs. dead weight on its outer end without bending more than an inch Photos by Godshall. WITH THE WRIGHT BROS.—Ready for a flight. On the right the Wright machine in the air is an instance of this biplane flying with one elevator and one "blinker." 706
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