Later in the same year Mr. Orville Wright went abroad with his aeroplane and made a large number of flights at Berlin, demonstrating to the German people the points of superiority of the aeroplane as against the gigantic dirigible balloons to which that nation had heretofore paid chief attention. Mr. Wilbur Wright meantime remained in America to give flights about New York Harbor during the Hudson-Fulton Centenary Celebration. On October 4th (1909), he made a sensational flight up the Hudson from Governor's Island, circling about above the warships anchored in the river in the neighborhood of Grant's Tomb, and returning to land at his starting-point. What would probably have been a still more spectacular flight was prevented by an accident to Mr. Wright's motor just as he was about to start on the afternoon of the same day.
Another flight that aroused great popular interest and enthusiasm was made by the Frenchman Louis Paulhan in competition for a prize of ten thousand pounds offered by the Daily Mail of London for a flight from London to Manchester. Paulhan left London at 5:20 on the evening of April 28, 1910. He descended at Litchfield but renewed his flight early next morning, arriving at Manchester at 8:10. He had covered the distance of 186 miles with a single stop, his actual flying time being four hours and eleven minutes, or an average rate of 44.3 miles an hour. In this flight M. Paulhan had for his only competitor Mr. White, an Englishman, who made a daring flight but did not cover the entire distance.
Paulhan had previously been known as one of the most daring of aviators. At Los Angeles, California, on January 13, 1910, he rose to a height of about 4,163 feet, establishing a record for altitude. He had also made thrilling cross-country flights on the occasion of the Los Angeles meet, as well as in France. Paulhan's record flights were made in a Farman bi-plane.
THE MONOPLANES OF BLÉRIOT AND LATHAM.
The upper figure is that of Blériot launched for his flight across the English Channel, on July 25th, 1909. The lower shows Latham starting in an attempt to cross the Channel, which barely failed of success through fault of the motor.
The spectacular flight from London to Manchester was matched soon after by Mr. Glenn H. Curtiss' flight from Albany to New York, which took place May 29, 1910. Mr. Curtiss had already achieved fame as an aviator, having won the chief speed contest in the International Aviation Meet held at Rheims in August, 1909. He used a bi-plane of his own construction, differing but little in design from the Wright machine, but of very small size, and propelled by an eight-cylinder motor, also made by Mr. Curtiss himself. The start from Albany was made at three minutes after seven o'clock and the aviator arrived at Governor's Island, New York Harbor, at twelve o'clock, having stopped twice on the way to rest and take on fuel. The first stop was made near Poughkeepsie, the second on the heights near the Hudson, within the bounds of New York City. The distance covered 142-1/2 miles; the actual time of flight, 2 hours and 54 minutes,—an average speed of about fifty miles an hour. Parts of the flight were made at a good deal better speed. The first part of the journey from Albany to Poughkeepsie, a distance of 74-1/4 miles, was covered in 1 hour 23 minutes, or at a rate of more than 53.68 miles an hour. The minimum speed at which Mr. Curtiss' bi-plane could be maintained in the air is about 40 miles an hour, the supporting surface of its main plane comprising only 236 square feet, and the weight of the machine complete, including aviator, fuel, and oil, being 950 pounds. The machine uses a single propeller, 7 feet in diameter, making 1,100 revolutions per minute, and giving a pull, when the machine is held stationary on the ground, of over 300 lbs. The engine used is an eight-cylinder motor of 50 horse-power.
A flight in some respects even more interesting than that of Mr. Curtiss was accomplished in France on the ninth of June, 1910, by Lieutenant Feguant and Captain Marconnet, officers of the French army, on a Farman bi-plane. "Starting from Chalons at 4:40 A. M.," says the Scientific American, "the officers flew 176 kilometers (109-1/4 miles) across country to the artillery park at Vincennes, which was reached at 7:10. This flight of two and one-half hours' duration was accomplished at a speed of 43-3/4 miles per hour. Captain Marconnet was able to take photographs and make sketches that would have been of great strategic interest in time of war. This is the first practical demonstration of the aeroplane for scouting purposes, in addition to its being a new world's record for cross-country flying with two men in the machine. Another French aviator, Labouchère, flew for ten minutes with two passengers at Mourmelon on the same day."
A BRITISH AEROPLANE.