Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 1927 AMERICAN AVIATION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 7 June 1927, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 1927 AMERICAN AVIATION

LINDRERHH’S remarkable flight from the United States to Franco has not only riveted the world’s attention on the progress nf aviation in America, it lias stimulated ttie world’s interest in commercial Living. In such wonderful feats as those performed by such Britishers as the brothers Smith and by Cobham, there is a tendency to. forget that it was in the United States that the heavicr-than-air flying machine came into being. Professor S. P. Langley, an American, constructed the first of such machines

capable of flying, in October, 1903, though ho never actually flew in it. But on December 9th, 1903, Orville Wright rode the first heavier-than-air machine into the atmosphere, and proved the possibility of fying, in keeping with the principles imagined by Langley. To the threa Wrights—Wilbur, Orville, and Katharine—the world owes |ho aeroplanp as we know it to-day, perfected and immensely developed, it is true, but nevertheless the extension of the Wright’s inventions. Wilbur Wright is dead. Urvillo is alive, and whenever he speaks of the work of his brother and himself, lie always includes his sister Katharine, “for she it was who taught school and each week gave her money for the purchase, of experimental supplies, while nightly she sewed the fabric to cover the wing frames.” It is interesting to learn that Katharine Wright recently married. The particular discovery of the Wrights, which made aviation what it is to-day, was’ the application of t,ho principle of lateral balance to the heavieMhan-air flying machine. Langley arid different European 'expert menters had worked on the principles of lateral guidanco and-height control, but stability in-flight, .relative to-the vertical and horizontal planes, was accomplished, by. the Wrights, and. it)^aa, they who made the first successful'flight. An interesting photograph shows their first machine, a bi-plane, skimming a few feet above . the ground, with Orville Wright on board and Wilbur Wright runhi/ig alongside. Unfortunately Katharine Wright is not in- the picture. Tlie Wright brothers were engaged bvtlnf. U.S.A. military authorities to form the first army aviation school, and by December, 1910, there were upwards, of a thousand aviators in the U.S.A. and Europe. But strange to say military aviation did not flourish in the country of its invention, and when the Great War broke out in 1914, it was the British military aviators who demonstrated the practical advantages of aviation in military operations. The British ’planes kept Sir John French and the French Commander-in-Chief perfectly informed of the movements of the German army in its advance which terminated in its defeat at the Battle of the Marne; and General JoiTre, in a special army order, thanked the British aviators for their valuable services.

The extraordinary usefulness of aircraft in tlie Great War stirred the imagination of the American people, and in 1917 the Government of the U.S.A. devoted a billion dollars to create an army air service. The result was what an American writer admits was “one of the greatest Government scandals in our history.” Money ; was poured out like water, but instead of thousands of machines being created, they numbered but a few score, and those largely obsolete. However, such was the energy of the American people that when the war terminated the United States a.r servije was a credit to the nation. It was in that service that Lindbergh learned to fly and acquired the skill and nerve and self-control which enabled him to make his wonderful flight, which has stirred the admiration of people all over tlie world. All the great European nations have produced grearf> fliers too many to name, and Britain is proud of her airmen and the marvellous efficiency of the Royal Air Force, but it is due to the United States of America that, in acknowledging the extraordinary performance of such aviators as Lindbergh, the great part which Americans have played in aviation, from its inception, should be recalled.