MOTORLESS ÆROPLANE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 12632, 8 December 1911, Page 3

MOTORLESS ÆROPLANE.

TEN-MINUTE RECORD. ,

NEW YORK, October 25. Mr Orville Wright has accomplished the wonderful feat of soaring m mid-air like a bird for ten minutes and one second on a motorless aeroplane. The performance took place yesterday at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, where the Wright Brothers are experimenting with a new invention &hich they hope will prevent an aeroplane turning turtle. A gale of between forty and fifty, miles an hour was blowing, but for five minutes the aeroplane floated motionless two hundred feet about the earth m the teeth of the wind. For the rest «f the time the machine soared up and down at the will of the operator. It was the most remarkable exhibition which the Wright's have yet given of the capacity pf their new glider, the secret of which i« aa closely guarded as, were those ..connected with their earliest attempts ','%& %ing. :...,,.•*.*■ The wind was so strong when the flight was made that even the soaring birds with which Kitty Hawk abounds wexe not to be seen. . Only one long wing-flapping bird, called the flycatcher, half the size of a sparrow, hovered for a short time above the Wright machine, and then, exhausted by the gale, alighted on a wire of the machine. Orville Wright, when (he came down, took the bird m his hand until.it recovered, when it flew away. Twenty-five flights were made during the day, culminating m the sensational record-breaking soar. A new machine was used. It is about one-third the size of the Wrights' fi-rst glider, and contains a number of improvements for accuracy of control. Mr. Orville Wright started from the top of a sand dune, working levers like a man rowing a boat. The airship rose instantly without preliminary push. As the wind got under the planes and raised her, she rose with scarcely a tremor 20t/ feet ? and remained for two minutes stationary. Then she slowly backed some distance and- went forward again into her old' position, resting m a space of less than ten yards square for five minutes while the wind wnistled through the canvas and wire stays. Following this the aeroplane started downward, bu when scarcely more than two feet from the ground she hovered, like a living thing, and then, m obedience to the airmen's lever-pulling, the craft rose and soared upwafd again, remaining steady for a short time, finally descending with a long, graceful curve to the ground. Mr Ogilvie, the Wrights English associate, wlio held a stop-watch rushed forward shouting "You've broken the record; you were m the- air lOmins. lsec."

The aeronaut, turning to the . newspaper correspondents present said: " I could not remain aloft longer, because the angle of instance was too small, and this glide is not intended for a. forty - mile gale. It is the most difficult flight I have attempted with a glider. I think we liave established the fact that one can remain m the air without a motor, if there is wind enough, though we have not solved the problem of aerial navigation, ftir no soaring can- be done m a calm." ' The illusion as Mr Wright remained practically motionless with the wind singing through the planes was perfect. It was the seventeenth flight he had made in 'the course of the day, and Mr Wright's machine -mounted like a kite without requiring any impetus for starting its run. The inventor was seen to be working the warping levers at about the speed of a man rowing a boat, and the glider rose with each successive gust of wind until it reached a height of 150 ft, when it floated as steadily as a ship on a calm sea.