SECRETARY'S REPORT 77 



I have beeo interested in the problem of mechanical and human flight ever 

 since as a boy I constructed a number of bats * of various sizes after the style of 

 Cayley's and Penaud's machines. My observations since have only convinced 

 me more firmly that human flight is possible and practicable. ... I am about 

 to begin a systematic study of the subject in preparation for practical work to 

 which I expect to devote what time I can spare from my regular business. . . . 

 I wish to obtain such papers as the Smithsonian Institution has published on 

 this subject, and if possible a list of other works in print in the English 

 language. ... I wish to avail myself of all that is already known and then if 

 possible add my mite to help on the future worker who will attain final success.^ 



Beyond the sculptures and monument model was a full-scale repro- 

 duction of the Wright wind tunnel of 1901-2 with which the brothers 

 developed their basic knowledge of aeronautics. Then, in a wide arc 

 under the wings of the Kitty Hawk Flyer itself was a series of scale 

 models and associated photographs illustrating the astounding fact 

 that Wilbur and Orville Wright and the Wright Company, between 

 1900 and 1916, designed and constructed no less than 25 types of 

 heavier-than-air craft, including the first to carry a passenger, the 

 first to fly for an hour, the first to fly for two hours, the first military 

 airplane to be put into practical service by any government, the first 

 to rise a mile, the first to carry air express, the first to fly across the 

 United States, and the first to fly while the pilot released the controls 

 and an automatic stabilizer was used — all these supplementing that 

 most wonderful "first" of all, the first heavier-than-air craft in the his- 

 tory of the world to carry a man in free, powered and controlled flight. 

 A scale model of the Burgess Type H showed one of the several air- 

 craft made by other companies under license from the Wright broth- 

 ers, and a model of the De Havilland-4 illustrated a type j^roduced 

 by the Dayton Wright Company during World War I, when Orville 

 was a director and engineer of that company. Three separately ex- 

 hibited Wright engines were shown : an upright 4-cy Under of 25 hp., 

 a 6-cylinder engine of 60 hp., and a later version of the 6, developing 

 70 hp. Supplementing these exhibits were five photographic displays 

 illustrating Wilbur and Orville Wright's gliding experiments of 

 1900, 1901, 1902, and Orville's of 1911 ; their flights in Europe in 1908 

 and 1909; Orville's military demonstration flights at Fort Myer in 

 1908 and 1909 ; the schools established by the Wrights at Dayton, Ohio, 



» Model aircraft. 



* He was sent four Smithsonian pamphlets: "Empire of the Air," by Louis-Pierre 

 Moulllnrd, "The Problem of Flying and Practical Experiments In Soaring," by Otto 

 Llllenthal, "Story of Experiments In Moclianlcal Flight," by Samuel P. Langley, and 

 "On Soaring Flight," by E. C. riuffaker. The reply also recommended a list of aero- 

 nautical books Including "Progross In Flying Machines," by Octave Chanute, "Experiments 

 in Aerodynamics," by Langley, and the "Aeronautical Annuals," edited by James Means, 

 coTitalnIng a number of reprints of early discourses on flight, and articles by experimenters 

 of the late nineteenth century. When the Wright brothers were presented with the 

 Langley Medal in 1909 by the Smithsonian Institution, Wilbur Wright referred to this 

 early letter and its helpful reply. 



