Great Flight by Mr. Wilbur Wright.

Progress, Volume IV, Issue 2, 1 December 1908, Page 54

Great Flight by Mr. Wilbur Wright.

(Details — from "The Times'' — of cabled condensation Uvo months ago.) "At Le Mans on the 21st Mr. Wilbur Wright surpassed all previous achievements in aeroplane flights, both for time and distance. It was not until 4 o'clock in the afternoon that, the wind having gone down, the aeroplane was brought out from its shed in the presence of Mr. Henry White, the United States Ambassador in Paris, and a crowd estimated at 8,000 persons. Much precious time was wasted in three false starts, but with his habitual imperturbability Mr. Wright persisted, and at 5.17 rose successfully into the air, and, flying at a height of 15 to 20ft., steered for the first turning post. The course is marked out by three turning, posts forming a triangle, of which the sides are 1,000, 700, and 300 metres respectively. One official lap is therefore 2000 metres, but in taking the turns more distance is naturally covered, so that a lap generally amountb to at least 2J ">OO metres.

The flight proceeded with perfect regularity and success, for the most part at a height of from 60 to 75ft., until the oncoming darkness, and that alone, made it desirable for Mr. Wright to return to the earth. He had flown for lhr. 31min. 25 sec, and had covered an official distance of 66 kilometres 600 metres, and an actual distance of considerably more — probably at least as far as from London to Brighton. As he only expended 22 litres of petrol, out of the 50 which he had on board, and two litres of water, out of the ten with which he started, there seems no reason why, with better luck in the afternoon, he should not have flown for three hours and a half. By this magnificent flight Mr. Wright appears to be the holder — until he is beaten — • of the Michelin Cup for the longest flight up to December 31 and of the prize offered by the "aviation" committee of the Aero Club for the best flight up to September 30. As the conditions for these prizes stipulate that competition for them must take place between sunrise and sunset, and be measured between the first and. last turning posts passed in full flight, Mr. Wright will only be able to count for them so much of his total distance as he covered before sunset — namely, 38 kilometres." This is important, as establishing a possibility of 137 miles on a consumption of 50 litres. In the remaining days of September Mr Wright made some very remarkable flights. In one of these he took with him M. Tissandier, the son of one of the most famous of the aeronauts of the Second Empire, and the days of the subsequent siege, a fact which lent considerable dramatic interest to the flight. The son of the veteran balloonist said to a reporter that he ' ' tried to have some sensations, but could not manage to get up anything. In fact, the only sensation he had was one of complete safety. ' ' After that Mr. Wright carried several passengers, one at a time. Of the flight on September 28th, the most remarkabie of the whole series, the description of the Times correspondent who saw it, which we quote, is one of the most interesting in the record of aviation. After his usual deliberate examination of his machine, he started at about 1.45, and flew lhr. 7min. 24 4/ssec. Of this time only lhr. 7min. and 11 2/ssec. counts for the aero-club competition, but during the latter period he covered 48 kilometres 120 metres, thus raising the previous record achievement by about nine kilometres. ' ' When he alighted about 20 yards from the turning post where I was standing, he explained tiiat owing to the too free working of the lubrication pump he had run out of lubricating oil. Otherwise, he said, I could have gone on for two or three hours." "Mr. Wrights habit is to speak the truth, and, indeed, so perfect is his control of the machine in a light breeze, such as prevailed this afternoon, and so regular the working of his motor, that there appeared no reason why he should not have continued flying so long as any petrol remained in his tank. He lost no water during the flight, and did not vary his speed more than a second or two per kilometre in ten kilometres. ' ' The machine flew, the correspondent added, with the steadiness of an express train about a height of 45 feet. During a flight of 55 kilometres on the 24th the wind got up, and the aeronaut found it hard work to struggle against the gusts, but the aeroplane behaved admirably, and the first 38 kilometres took only 31sec. longer

than did the same distance earlier in a com-

parative calm. It is interesting to note that during these exhibitions, Mr Farman has been making progress also, and on one occasion flew 34 kilometres in 36 minutes. Of his new machine it is said to have but little lateral roll, and to be under very good control. The weight carried was 650 kilogrammes.