AIRCRAFT PROPULSION — TAYLOR 251 



1 for other data) . At 2.2 pounds per hp., this engine can legitimately 

 be described as remarkable for its time. Figure 3 shows a letter from 

 C. M. Manly giving some data on this engine that were not published 

 in the memoirs. 



The first man-carrying heavier-than-air flights were, of course, 

 those of the Wright brothers on December 17, 1903. The engine 

 used was their own design. In these four flights, assisted takeoff 

 was not used (as it was in later flights). Thus, powered heavier- 

 than-air flight by man was first achieved on that day. 



The Wright engine of 1903, and Charles Manly's magnificent full- 

 scale engine completed late in 1901, and tested in 1902, 1903, and 1904 

 (also based somewhat on Balzer's design), may be taken as the real 

 beginning of the age of the reciprocating internal-combustion engine 

 in aeronautics. As such, these engines are worthy of some detailed 

 attention. 



WRIGHT brothers' ENGINE 



Little was known about the accomplishments of the Wright brothers 

 until some years after their flights of December 17, 1903. Figure 4 

 shows a short and amusingly inaccurate report in the New York 

 Times of December 26, 1903, which attracted little attention. 



In spite of the fact that the flights near Dayton in 1904 and 1905 

 were witnessed by numerous people, the press paid them no attention. 

 The first eyewitness report published was a letter in Gleanings in 

 Bee Culture, Medina, Ohio, January 1, 1905, by its publisher, A. I. 

 Root, mider the title "What God Hath Wrought." 



The first public report by the Wrights themselves appeared in the 

 Century Magazine of September 1908. (The Century was similar 

 m content and format to Harper's and the Atlantic Monthly.) At 

 the time of publication I discovered this article in our home copy 

 of the "Century." In spite of its many photographs of the machine 

 in flight, my father refused to believe that human flight had been 

 achieved. Tliis attitude was pretty general at the time, partly on 

 account of the great number of false claims to flight which had been 

 made in the past. These claims also account for the incredible ab- 

 sence of reports by the Dayton press, whose representatives, after 

 witnessing two unsuccessful attempts at flight in 1904, failed to report 

 eyewitness accounts of the many flights made in 1904 and 1905, or 

 even to go 8 miles out of town to see for themselves ! 



The Century article is extraordinary in its simple and beautiful 

 expository style, and in its evidence of the almost excessive modesty 

 of the brothers Wright, together with their rationality and persist- 

 ence. I believe that it should be rated as a classic in American 

 scientific literature. 



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