Wright Defeats Gale, Thousands Applaud

1909

Flies 21 Miles Up Hudson River and Returns

NEW YORK, Oct. 7. — Over a tumbling sea of air waves that swept from the walls of skyscrapers Wilbur Wright made a sensational flight in his aeroplane from Governor's Island north above the Hudson River, around the British cruiser Drake, and anchored 1,000 feet north of Grant's tomb, and back to the starting point again without mishap.

Wright was in the air 33 minutes and 33 seconds and flew approximately twenty-one miles, including the turn over the warships, an average speed of thirty-seven miles an hour. At no time was he more than 500 feet above the waters of the river. The average height at which the machine traveled was 200 feet. A part of the way it went as low as twenty feet.

To use the bird man's own words: "It was a rough but exhilarating flight, and everything worked beautifully."

Hundreds of thousands of eager men and women massed in the towers and on the roofs of all the tall buildings, crowded in the streets close to the river and spread over the entire riverside section, gazed in wonder at the flying man as he deftly manipulated his slender machine in the changing currents of the upper air. Cheering that he never heard greeted him throughout his majestic flight.

Flying at a forth-mile clip at an elevation of 100 feet, Wright quickly passed the Battery, which was black with humanity and encountered for the first time rough air waves flung from the roofs of the down town skyscrapers. The tall Singer tower, standing between the aviator and the rushing wind, was responsible for an angry swirl of currents, and Wright was quick to see that it was ticklish going. The aeroplane bobbed and fretted at this point, but the master hand at the levers overcame the attack of the almost baffling air waves, the airship literally riding over them, now dipping, now rising sharply, like a steamer in a tumble of waters.

The machine passed the foot of Fulton street at 10 o'clock, 200 feet in the air. Finally he turned off toward the Jersey shore and settled down to an altitude of about 150 feet. The machine appeared to behave better after this maneuver and traveled at a fast clip.

In a wide-sweeping curve to the right, the plane dipping slightly and gracefully, the biplane circled the British cruiser and headed down stream again.

After the aviator had made his turn, he glided swiftly toward the Jersey shore and when the machine was about 1,000 yards out he turned sharply to the left again and began his triumphal journey back to Governor's Island.

From a height of 150 feet off the Battery the great bird began the descent where a little group of patient men, that included Major General Wood and James M. Beck, chairman of the aeronautic committee of the Hudson-Fulton celebration, had been waiting since the start. Finally it glided to earth only a few feet from the starting point with scarcely a jar.

Orville Wright Is Aeroplane King

Printed Aug. 1909

Dayton Aviator Sets New Record for Endurance

Washington. — Flying 50 miles, which is more than double the distance across the English channel, Orville Wright, the American "king of the air," Tuesday at Fort Myer, broke the aeroplane endurance record, with Lieut. Frank P. Lahm, as a passenger. The machine was in the air one hour, 12 minutes and 40 seconds.

The former record was made last year by his brother Wilbur, joint inventor with him of the machine in which both achievements were performed, at Le Mans, France, with Prof. Painleve of the French institute as passenger. That flight was one hour, nine minutes and 31 seconds.

The cheering which heralded the setting of a new mark in the conquest of the air was led by President Taft in person, who was an intensely interested spectator throughout the flight, and who insisted at its conclusion upon personally congratulating the brothers upon their success. This success was all-important to the Wrights in that it completed the first of two crucial tests of their machine imposed upon them by the United States government — the so-called "endurance test," which required them to remain one hour continuously in the air with one passenger.


Attempt to Fly Across English Channel Fails

Dover, England. — Hubert Latham's second attempt to fly across the English channel ended disastrously Tuesday. Almost in the moment of victory his monoplane fluttered down into the sea two miles beyond the Admiralty pier, like a bird with a broken wing. Thousands of persons crowding the water front saw the fall and feared Latham was dead.

A flock of large and small craft raced to the scene of the disaster, and a pinnace from the British battleship Russell picked up the unlucky flyer and put him aboard the French torpedo boat destroyer Escopette. After a surgeon had attended to his injuries the destroyer brought Latham ashore and he was taken to the Lord Warden hotel. His face was bandaged and bleeding and his nose was broken. The machine, badly wrecked, was hoisted from the boat to the dock.

Teen Breaks Arm Five Times

1909

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan — Forbidden by his parents to play football after he had broken his left arm three times in the game, 15-year-old William Eminger found that he could not even watch the game with safety to his delicate member. He was a spectator on the sidelines at a high school game and the team in a scrimmage fell over his chair. Eminger's arm was broken when one of the players landed on top of him. This makes the fifth time the arm has been broken. The only time football was not responsible Eminger broke it falling out of bed.


Love's Young Dream

LOS ANGELES, Cal. — When Levi Hall, who is of the impressionable age of eighty-nine years, went to call on Miss H. W. Coe, a fair and sprightly maiden of seventy-five summers, he was greatly surprised when John Moore, ninety years old, emerged from an adjoining room and began to belabor him with a stout hickory cane. Hall hurried from the home of his inamorata to the receiving hospital, and then to the police station, where he caused the arrest of his rival on a charge of battery. Hall does not believe that Miss Coe will think any the less of him because he retreated.


Makes High Flight Record

POTSDAM, Germany — Orville Wright, the American aviator, broke his own and all other records for high flying. He reached the unprecedented height of more than 1,600 feet, although an official measurement was not taken. He had a red-letter day in a double sense in his experience as an aviator, taking up Crown Prince Frederick William as a passenger and more than doubling the altitude record which he made recently over the same field.

Wrights Home This Week

After a Day Spent In New York They Will Proceed to Dayton.

New York, May 10.—Marked tributes of homage await Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton, O., when they arrive in New York Tuesday from Europe where their triumphs in aviation have been keenly watched by the world at large.

The stay of the brothers in New York will be of short duration—one day; but during the twenty-four hours they will be the figures of interest at several receptions and luncheons given by the Aero Club of America and the Automobile Club of America.

After a day spent In the metropolis the brothers will proceed to Dayton, their home city. There they will complete the aeroplane which is to be delivered to the government at Fort Myer, Va., next month.

--Warren Evening Mirror, Warren, Pennsylvania, May 10, 1909, page 7.