WILBUR WRIGHT.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 13701, 7 June 1912, Page 5

WILBUR WRIGHT.

TRIBUTES TO THE DEAD AIRMAN. His Persistence and Daring. NEW YORK, June 3. The death of Air Wilbur Wright has evoked manifestations of profound sorrow throughout the United States.

General Allen, chief signal officer in the United States, in paying a tribute to the dead aviator, said that never at anv time did Wilbur Wright show any doubt as to his ability to accomplish exactly wtaC he undertook to do, and that he never made any extravagant claims for his machine.

To his great credit, he was the first to demonstrate to the world the practicability of dynamic flight. His success was duo not to chance, Hot to any accidental, discovery, but to Ins persistem-d, daring, ami intelligence ,in scb-utilicnn\ working out the different parts of Ins aeroplane, and especially la testing the machine in flight.

THE FIRST TO FLY. Paris Paper’s Eulogy. PARIS, Juno “La Libertc." one of (he Paris dailies, says that the death of Air Wilbur Wright will cause genuine emotion in Fiance, in ‘T’’ tn of all contentions with him and nis brother. “1 he brothers,'' (’no paper goes on to ray, 'were really the first to fly, and with the passing of Wilbur Wright as of all great men the world will no ’longer contest iiis gOnins, and no cloud will over shadow his glory,”

THE W RIGHT BROTHERS,

Early Experiments,

No tame is more familiar in tins aviation world than of tin Wright brothers, W ilbur and Orville, both of wliom have been so inseparably associated in all tiieuexperiments during tiie last twelve years. Ihe sun ol an American clergyman. Bishop Milton Wright, Wilbur was just four years older than Orville, having been born m 1867.

The brothers were originally engaged >' the manufacture and sale of bicycles, but they gave this up when they went in for aeroplanes experiments in 1900. They had previously invented a printing press winch has been much admired for its ingenuity, Alley began their experiments with aeroplanes on models suggested by a wellknown Chicago engineer, Mr Chanute, who sin e 1690, had been interested in trials with machines suggested fcy those used by. Dr. Lilienthal, of Berlin, who was billed in 18JG after many successful experiments from hilltops and towers. Mr Chanute evolved a mode! consisting of Uvo par llel horizontal surfaces, which is in its main lines the same as that used by the AVirghts. The plan followed by Lilienthal, Channle, and the Wrights was to learn all that could be learned from “gliding (light—that is, by starting the maeiiine with a run from the top of a hill, and endeavouring fo make air resistance against the plances counteract the force of gravity, just as a pigeon drops off a roof to the ground ou outstretched! wings. I'he Wngiits advanced further than any predecessor or contemporary, and became remarkably skilful in controlling a “gliding aeroplane. Finaly. they tried a machine driven bv aerial scrcw-pr.-i: oilers actuated by a light motor. Their success, of course, is now a blatter of history.