150 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



made a magnificent flight of 21 miles, from Governors Island to 

 Grant's Tomb and return. 



Meanwhile we may go back to September, 1908, and note some of 

 Orville Wright's performances. He had at Washington the same 

 general arrangement, consisting of a launching rail, launching der- 

 rick, and an apparatus for hoisting up the weights, in order to give 

 the machine impetus. This aeroplane is 40 feet across and has a 

 breadth of 6£ feet. The front rudder is 16 feet long, 2£ feet broad, 

 and is equipped with skids, as shown in plate 5, figure 2. The pro- 

 peller is of peculiar and original construction, and the motor is in 

 every way the Wrights', for, in 1902, they made a canvass of the 

 different makers of gasoline motors in this country, asking them to 

 furnish a motor according to specifications which they presented. 

 None of them at that time could do so, and the Wrights went to work 

 themselves, designed a motor, and built it with their own hands. 

 This design has proven more reliable than the motors built in France, 

 which are unduly light. The Wright motor, originally of 15 pounds 

 to the horsepower, was reduced to 7 or 8 pounds to the horsepower, 

 while the French people are building motors weighing 44, to 5 pounds, 

 but they do not prove as reliable, while the Wright motor has never 

 given any trouble and has proven reliable in every respect. 



Orville Wright made a number of unofficial tests in 1908. On the 

 8th of September he rose to a height of 100 feet and flew 40 miles; 

 on the 12th he made a little higher ascension, estimated by the Army 

 officers at 200 feet, and flew 50 miles in 1 hour and 15 minutes. Al- 

 together that year he made 14 flights. On the morning of the 17th 

 of September he made several short flights. In the afternoon of that 

 same day he met with a terrible accident; his propeller broke while 

 he and Lieut. Sel fridge were in mid-air, the machine falling to the 

 earth, when Orville was seriously injured and Lieut. Selfridge was 

 killed. This ended the tests of that year. The Government granted 

 an extension of time and the trials were not resumed until July of 

 this year (1909). The results this year, as you know, have been very 

 successful. The official time test shows that on the 27th of July the 

 machine remained in the air for 1 hour and 13 minutes, with two per- 

 sons on board. 



On the 30th of July the machine traveled 5 miles and back cross- 

 country in 14 minutes, with two persons on board, at a speed which 

 averaged over 42 miles an hour. Therefore, the machine was accepted 

 by the Government and a premium was given the Wrights of $5,000 

 for the extra 2 miles of speed. Wilbur Wright is now engaged in 

 teaching the Army officers how to use the machine. Immediately after 

 the acceptance of the machine, Orville Wright went to Berlin, and 

 there he has been accomplishing some remarkable feats. On the 29th 



