American army aeroplane manœuvring over the troops mobilized at San Antonio, Texas, during the 1911 Mexican revolution.
We will leave Mr. Curtiss and his associates for the time being and take up again the work of the Wright brothers, who in the spring of 1909 returned to the United States after their European triumphs. Their laurels were further added to by a medal from the Aero Club of America, presented by President Taft at the White House, and medals from the Federal Government, the state of Ohio, and their home town of Dayton. All this time they were busy making the aeroplane with which they were to resume the final tests for the Government that had been interrupted the previous fall by the death of Lieutenant Selfridge. They arrived at Fort Myer in June, but spent most of that month and a large part of July in preparations and short practice flights. The great crowds, among which were scores of statesmen and politicians, gathered in Washington, became impatient at the delays, but the brothers had waited for a good many years to perfect their biplane and would not risk failure by attempting the official tests in bad weather, with their plane out of tune, or their engine in bad working order.
Finally ten thousand cheering spectators were rewarded by seeing Orville Wright ascend with Lieutenant Lahm as a passenger, and sail for 1 hour and 40 seconds, fulfilling the endurance requirements. The next few days the weather prevented the distance test, but one calm evening just before sunset Orville carried Lieut. B. D. Foulois across hills and valleys to Alexandria and return at an average speed of 42.6 miles per hour. This won the brothers a bonus of $5,000 on the price of the machine because they were to receive $2,500 extra for each mile per hour more than the 40 miles per hour called for in the contract. It was the greatest feat of aviation ever seen in the United States at the time and the ovation tendered the brothers was equal to the occasion. Not once, however, did they lose their heads in the slightest or show any undue enthusiasm over their achievement. Statesmen, army officers, and newspaper men crowded around with congratulations and praises, but the great victory was only what the brothers had expected and they soon were planning improvements on their biplane.
The real meaning of this feat by the Wright biplane, however, was that the United States was the first nation officially to adopt an aeroplane for military purposes. To Americans it seems peculiarly fitting that it was the Wright machine that was adopted because it was the Wright aeroplane, strictly an American product, that was the first practical flier.
Later on Wilbur returned to Fort Myer to finish off his contract by teaching two Signal Corps officers to handle the machine. During this time the aviator changed his biplane by transferring one of the forward elevating planes to the rear, where it was used as a fixed tail to give greater stability from front to rear. This was such a success that it was used in subsequent models, and the present-day Wright biplanes have no forward lifting plane at all—the horizontal plane at the rear serving as the elevator and also as the fore and aft balancer.
In the fall of 1909, after the Fort Myer tests, the brothers again separated, Orville going to Europe, where he achieved more distinction, and Wilbur remaining at home to astonish his countrymen with his exhibitions at the Hudson-Fulton Celebration. He made the first trip around the Statue of Liberty on September 9, starting from and returning to Governor's Island in New York Bay.
In the meantime the European aviators were making even greater strides, and 1909 saw many new aeroplanes take the air to break records of different kinds. Throughout the season there was hardly a day that some record was not broken, or that some previously unknown man did not achieve undying fame for his daring feats.
Aeroplane schools were established and aviation passed from the stage of experimenting into the stage of record making and breaking.
The European governments, particularly France and Germany, were carefully watching progress, and dozens of the pupils in the aviation schools were young officers detailed to learn the art of flying and report on its usefulness in warfare. Also the building of aeroplanes became a great industry and in France thousands of scientists, designers, mechanics, motor experts, and wood-working experts were engaged in turning out machines as fast as they could.
It would be impossible in this brief space to describe all of the important flights of the last few busy years in aviation, which were talked of by the boy and his scientist friend, but a very brief outline of the feats accomplished will show the wonderful progress that has been made. The first great international meet, which was held at Rheims, France, in 1909, did more than anything else up to that time to show the world how far the science had gone and how many good machines there were. So great was the public interest in this meet that before the end of the year meets were arranged and held at Blackpool and Donchester, England; Berlin, Juvisy, France, and Brescia, Italy. The most notable achievements of the year in Europe were the flight across the English Channel by Blériot in his graceful monoplane, by which he won the prize of 1,000 pounds offered by the London Daily Mail, the winning of the James Gordon Bennett Cup by Curtiss, the only American to contest for the great honour, and the winning of the Grand Prix by Farman in his biplane. Blériot, while practising, before his famous flight across the English Channel, broke many records with his monoplanes, No. XI and No. XII. He was the first man to take two passengers in such a craft, those in the machine besides himself being Santos-Dumont and A. Fournier. The total weight of machine and three men was 1,232 pounds. He also made several cross-country records and received medals from the Aero Club of Great Britain and the Aero Club of France.