THE WRIGHTS' GLIDER.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 12840, 11 December 1911, Page 3

THE WRIGHTS' GLIDER.

REMARKABLE PERFORMANCE

At Sundown, on October 23, with a forty-mil© wind blowing across the sand dunes of North Carolina, Mr. Orvillo Wright performed a remarkable gliding feat, breaking all records. According to the despatches printed in JNew I York, Mr. "Wright, witn ins new ma- j chine, and without motor power, re- I inained in the air ten minutes and a j few seconds, of which time he remained practically still for nearly two minutes, this remarkable performance proving, according to the experts, that man, j with the assistance of a gale, can soar : for practically an unlimited time. The wind was blowing at the rate of forty miles an hour when the aviators carried their machine to the top of a j big sand dune, and quickly placed it in | position. In another instant it was shooting upward to a height of 200 ft., I with Orville Wright manipulating the j levers after the style of a man rowing a boat. The wind was coming in quick I gusts, but the graceful craft never wavered. Once she was up where ho wanted her, Mr. Wright turned her on j an oven keel, and she ..floated in tho ■ air as steadily as a ship rides in a calm j sea. i Over a spot less than ten yards , square she rested for two minutes, : stood motionless, save for the slight ] tremors of the planes as they answered j tho levers, and then slowly backed up ! over the crest of the hill. Thon she < went forward into her old position, and i remained there while the gale sang ', through her canvas. The third, fourth, I fifth, and sixth minutes passed, and j still she hung suspended. Watch in j hand the timekeeper signalled to Mr. j Wright that he was closo to his 7min. 15sec. record/ and ho nodded a reply. At that instant tho glider started downwards, and seemed about to alight, I but when two feet from the hill sho stopped, and hovered over the snot liko I a living thing. Soon she began t>o rise, \ and in a flash she was back once more , over tho hilltop. . j From that time on she remained in a j given spot, turning neither ttf njjht j nor to left \intil the aviator began to j descend by a long, graceful curve into j a meadow 700 foet awr-y. | Mr. Alexander Ogilvie, tho aviator's | English companion, was among the > first to congratulate Mr. Wright^ who • says his experiments aro nob yet finish- j ed, and that ho expects the new glider ; to do still better. ;