On the following evening the weather was clear and fairly still. All was in readiness for the flight to Alexandria and return. Orville Wright, taking with him Lieut. B. D. Foulois, circled the drill ground on easy wing, then sailed directly across country for the captive balloon at Shuter’s Hill. In a few moments they vanished beyond the forest, and for a while even the most optimistic were doubtful of their safety. At length they reappeared sailing homeward at very great speed. The machine proudly circled the drill ground amid thunders of applause, and landed softly at the lower end, beyond the shed.
The multitude hastened to congratulate the aviators on their marvelous performance. For everybody it was a scientific and national triumph; for Wilbur Wright it was something more. With pencil and pad he quickly computed the bonus, surrounded by a wall of reporters. “Wise old Wilbur,” remarked one, “he knows the worth of coin in a crude republic. While Fame blows her trumpet he counts the solid gain.” The figures showed an average speed of 42.6 miles, making the bonus $5,000. The voyage was one of the finest ever executed up to that date; it was a glorious termination to a long and troublesome, but epoch-making demonstration. Now there remained only the task of instructing two officers to fly, and this was leisurely accomplished by Wilbur Wright in October.
As shown in [Plate XXVI] the Wright aëroplane used at Fort Myer in September, 1908, was a twin screw biplane mounted on skids and having the three-rudder system of control. The rear rudder turned the machine right or left, the front rudder raised or lowered it, the warping of the wings controlled the lateral poise. The turning right or left could be effected on level wing; but the inventors canted the machine sidewise, to obviate skidding, or sidewise gliding of the craft, due to centrifugal force. These three-rudder movements were performed by three separate levers actuating suitable mechanism; but they could be performed easily by a single lever having three separate movements, as preferred by some designers. The aëroplane in launching ran along a monorail, accelerated by a towrope passing over pulleys, and attached to a falling weight comprising nearly a ton of iron. The dimensions of the various parts are given as follows by Major George O. Squier,[50] the officer in charge of the experiments:
“The aëroplane has two superposed main surfaces 6 feet apart with a spread of 40 feet, and a distance of 6½ feet from front to rear. The area of this double supporting surface is about 500 square feet. A horizontal rudder of two superposed plane surfaces about 15 feet long and 3 feet wide is placed in front of the main surfaces. Behind the main planes is a vertical rudder formed of two surfaces trussed together about 5½ feet long and one foot wide. The motor, which was designed by the Wright brothers, has four cylinders and is water cooled. It develops about 25 horse power at 1,400 r. p. m. There are two wooden propellers 8½ feet in diameter which are designed to run at about 400 r. p. m. The machine is supported on two runners and weighs about 800 pounds.”
On the whole the demonstrations at Fort Myer in 1909 did not greatly enhance the prestige of aviation. They were attended by too many delays and accidents, and too much waiting for ideal weather. As a consequence the guardians of the national purse were not clamoring for an aërial flotilla. Some few, no doubt, understood that the aëroplane could brave more than a zephyr with safety; but the general public accepted the demonstrations at their face value. The unthinking multitude did not realize that with sufficient incentive, such as war presents, the Wright brothers could repeat those brilliant flights, of the end of July, under more severe weather conditions. Fortunately, events were transpiring elsewhere which vastly increased the popular fame and valuation of the new art. This refers more particularly to those startling achievements in aviation abroad which were largely stimulated by competition and prizes.
After the Fort Myer flights the Wright brothers separated, Orville going to Germany to represent their interests and give demonstrations; Wilbur exhibiting at the Hudson-Fulton celebration in New York, and teaching the Signal Corps officers to manipulate the newly purchased government aëroplane. As usual, both achieved distinction in their new fields. At Potsdam, on October 2d, Orville Wright, after a ten-minute flight with Crown Prince Frederic William, ascended alone, mounting steadily in circles for fifteen minutes, and reaching an elevation roughly estimated at 500 meters, after which he descended safely in five minutes. On September 18th, he made a new record at Berlin by carrying a passenger, Captain Englehardt, for 1 hour, 35 minutes and 47 seconds. Wilbur Wright, on September 9th, flew from Governor’s Island, in New York harbor, to and around the Statue of Liberty, then returned to the point of departure. On October 4th, starting from the same point, he flew over the waters of New York Bay and above the Hudson River to a point opposite Grant’s Tomb, then returned to Governor’s Island, covering a distance of about 19½ miles in 33½ minutes. The trip upward was made at an elevation of about 200 feet, through a stratum disturbed by vortices rising from the steamer smokestacks, and eddies caused by the northeast wind blowing over the tall buildings. The return was made at a level of 50 feet on the Jersey side of the river where the air was less turbulent. He intended later in the day to make a long flight, but, owing to the bursting of a cylinder head, he stopped his demonstrations and returned to Washington to finish his instruction of the Signal Corps officers. This was easy routine, and it afforded opportunity to try the effect of transferring one of the forward steering planes to the rear and applying it there as a fixed horizontal tail, as used by Voisin, Curtiss and others. The new arrangement was reported to increase the longitudinal steadiness of the aëroplane, and was used in subsequent Wright aëroplanes.
The brothers now ceased public flying for a while, to attend to the business of manufacturing and selling their craft. They formed an American company, enlarged their facilities for constructing machines, procured grounds for training operators, and prepared generally to fill orders both for aëroplanes and for public exhibitions. Not the least of their labor was to defend their patent claims, which they wished to be interpreted so broadly as practically to exclude all flyers whose lateral poise is controlled by changing the angle of incidence of the wings, or of lateral stabilizing planes. This was not an easy undertaking, since the torsion wing was a well-known device, having been described many times in public print, and having figured in earlier patents and experiments in various countries. To add to the difficulty, their patent claims apply specifically to the warping of normally flat sustaining surfaces, the warping of arched wings having been patented by Prof. J. J. Montgomery, whose invention antedates theirs.[51] However, if they produced no novel and radical invention in aviation, they, like Santos-Dumont in aëronautics, were first to achieve some measure of practical success, by applying a light automobile engine to a familiar machine in which former inventions and ideas were skillfully employed. On this ground of practical success they strove for an interpretation broad enough to establish a monopoly covering even Montgomery’s rights, which apparently they were infringing. But when to this end they applied for a preliminary injunction restraining Curtiss from using his system of control, and Paulhan from using Farman’s system, they were unable to convince the court of the justice of their petition, and the injunction suit was vacated.
CHAPTER XI
The cardinal allurements in aviation for 1909 were the prize offered for the first flight across the English Channel, and the prizes to be won at the world’s first aviation meet, scheduled for the last week in August of that year, at Rheims, France. The desire to win these honors stimulated to livelier effort the most noted designers and operators of aëroplanes, all of whose machines were represented at the great tournament. It also brought into sudden prominence several new aviators. Young men, little versed in the science or literature of flight, took to wing, and in a few days found themselves world-famous. Aërial chauffeurs, skillful and daring, delighted vast throngs of people, kept the cables warm with news, and incidentally filled their purses with money. Thus the trade of aëroplane jockey was one of the interesting products of this eventful year.