For nearly a month Orville Wright, of Dayton, Ohio, has been making successful air flights upon the parade of Fort Myer, Va., in the suburbs of Washington.
At the same time his brother Wilbur, with a duplicate machine, has been winning a similar success in the suburbs of Paris.
The Wright machine - aeroplane the newspapers call it; aero is said to be the correct designation - has no balloon attachment.
It is a distinct "heavier-than-air" type, and weighs, without load, 800lb.
It is of simple construction.
Two parallel canvas frames about 50ft long and 7ft wide are placed 5ft apart.
Between them, in the centre of the machine sit the operator and his passenger, and behind them is placed a 30 horse-power gasoline engine driving twin two-blade propellers of about 8ft in diameter.
Canvas rudders are placed fore and aft, and levers give a slight birdlike control of these.
The Federal Government has arranged a test for the Wright machine, one that would have been fulfilled some time ago had it not been for the unfortunate accident.
The machine is to fly from Fort Myer to Alexandria and return - a distance of 10 miles all told - in 15 minutes.
When this test has been fulfilled the Wrights will receive a premium of £7000, and will still hold all the rights upon their machine.
They will have accomplished only the first step of their work.
It will have to be developed in a multitude of details, but, in the opinion of men who know, this will be a comparatively easy matter now that the scientific principle of the machine is so well established.
More than anything, the machine, to be of any real value, must have greater carrying capacity, and must be able to navigate successfully in all kinds of weather. - ODT, 18.11.1908.
