THE PLYING WRIGHTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14047, 29 April 1909, Page 5

THE PLYING WRIGHTS.

EXPERIMENTS IN ENGLAND.

By TflcgiKph Ties? Association.—Copyright. London, April 27. Mr. Wilbur Wright, the American aviator, demonstrating the possibility of his aeroplane dispensing with the starting rails which have hitherto always been used at the beginning of each ascent, rose in his aeroplane yesterday to a height of 200 ft from the bare ground.

Mr. Wright comes to England on Wednesday to make experiments here at the invitation of Mr. Haldane (Secretary for War).

" One day," Paid Mr. Wilbur Wright., in an interview with a London journalist, last month, "wo were reading about, flyingmachines-, and we thought we would try and make one. First of all we made paper gliders, setting them afloat in the little machine, shop. One day we discovered how to make gliders always glide, and we then made gliders to scale, with weights representing a man and a motor. _ Finally, wo made one of full size. With this practicable model we went to the sandhill country in North Carolina. The first test was unfortunate. The machine- swooping from the hill top into the sand, was smashed, but I myself escaped with a few sprains. The trials which we conducted next summer taught us how to fly, the aeronaut lying face downwards • and gradually acquiring the necessary balance for riding in the air." The next problem was the motor. There were none made then that gave the requisite power, but an automobile motor was adapted by the Wrights till the requisite strength per pound weight was obtained. This, however, necessitated a change in the form of the "glider," but the inventors managed to devise a machino that would fly. The Wrights liavo now convinced everybody that they have produced a practicable hcavier-than-air aeroplane. In their new machine the operator can sit up as in an automobile. They have built and worked sucoesfFully a two-passenger machine. They do not think an airship is at present a practicable moans of transportation, the margin of carrying power over tho weight of the machinery being too slight to permit taking a cargo of persons or freight, but they think there is no reason why anyone should not keep an airship like, a motor car. The cost of construction is the same, and the operator is in less rather than more danger after learning to fly, since the Wright machines simply glide down to '«arth. It is unnecessary vo soar high except to find a smoother stratum of air.