TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AGO

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 19 December 1925, Page 5

TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AGO

THE FIRST AEROPLANE. ITS FI,TOUT RECALLED. PARTICIPATOR’S IDPR KSSiONS. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPY SIGHT. Received Dee. 19, 9.5 a.m. NEW YORK, Dec. 18. A telegam from Dayton, Ohio, says: “Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first- airplane flight at Kittyhavvk, North Carolina, twenty-two years ago to-day, which lasted fifty-nine seconds. Orville, commenting on this fact, said: “Wb learned a great deal in that first flight. We figured that a straight flight at six or seven feet would show us the strength of our machine, and at the same time be the safest. Like most persons learning to drive an automobile, we overcontrolled ; another thing, we did not realise that there were air currents. W© felt every little hump on the ground. Sometimes the ’plane was many feet in the air; at others, within inches of the ground. Really the flight was almost equivalent to one in a roller coaster. Government reports showed that it had been made in a twenty-seven mile wind. The full significance of the airplane was not foreseen by us at the time. We could foresee" many of the things the ’plane lias been used for, but- many others were beyond our comprehension. We expected it to do much more in a sporting way. We realised that a successful ’plane would he a big war feature, and one alone would be worth thousands of cavalry in scouting work, but we could not dream of using them in great quantities, as was the case in the late war. Our idea was that a ’plane bringing the war scourge homo to the heart would prove a big peace factor. We realised that bombing in a small way would he possible, but not such a rise as the directing of gunfire, photography, etc. We did not realise its possibilities In commercial work or mail service, and the next decade will see developments even more -tattling and important in both military and commercial aviation.” —Aus._ N.Z. Cable Assn.