AERONAUTICS: 25 Years

(See front cover)

Dec. 17, 1903, Orville Wright, at Kitty Hawk,* N. C., made the first airplane flight in history. His brother Wilbur who had helped him invent the motor and design the plane, watched him, nervous, confident and inquisitive, from the ground. An undertaker also stood by. Wilbur Wright died in 1912; but Orville Wright has lived to see:

1) This week, the $100,000,000 U. S. aviation industry hold a vast commercial exposition at Chicago;

2) Next fortnight, himself as guest of honor at the International Conference on Civil Aeronautics, at Washington;

3) Dec. 17, his flight’s silver anniversary ceremonies at Kitty Hawk—the National Aeronautic Association dedicating a 10-ton granite boulder at the point whence he took off, the Government laying the cornerstone of a monument there.

First Flight. A biting cold wind was blowing 24 miles an hour along the beach at Kitty Hawk the morning of Dec. 17, 1903. The Wrights with their biplane and a few helpers were on a knoll. Dismally nearby was a horse and wagon. A man sat on the wagon seat, leaning patiently forward, his hands hanging loosely between his knees, the reins looped over a crooked finger. He was a native undertaker.

The plane resembled a great, wide box kite with” struts supporting vertical and horizontal rudders far out in the rear. The engine was at one side of the flyer’s seat, so that if the plane tumbled it would not fall on him. Two skids projected in front to prevent the plane somersaulting on landing.

The Wrights built the plane according tospecifications which they developed themselves. When they had been boys at Dayton, Ohio, they had played with kites and gliders and grew expert in their flight. When they were young men and in the bicycle business they continued to study aerodynamics. They built themselves a wind tunnel and learned new aerodynamical laws. Two things, they learned, happened to a moving plane—wind” pushed it up from below and a vacuum sucked it up from above. If the plane was slightly curved and tapered from front to back the suction force was about three times the pushing force. They learned, too, how to warp the plane wings, how to steer it, how to control it in all ways. They built their own motor. And then they were ready to make their first flight.

At Kitty Hawk that cold December week, Wilbur and Orville Wright tossed a coin to decide which would try the first flight. Wilbur won, got into the machine, rose a few feet. After three seconds the machine stalled. Next it was Orville’s turn. He succeeded; he sustained the flight of a kite.

Wright Honors. The U. S., then, was tepid to flying. So the Wrights went to Europe. There they won recognition and financial backing. That is why, when Orville Wright believed that the Smithsonian Institution at Washington was erroneously giving the late Samuel Pierpont Langley credit for the first man-carrying airplane, he sent his Kitty Hawk plane to the Science Museum’ at South Kensington, London, for preservation.

Of course, Orville and Wilbur Wright, who never attended college, soon received honorary academic degrees. Orville Wright has eight.

And, of course, they made money. In 1915, three years after Wilbur Wright’s death, Orville sold his patents to the Wright Aeronautical Corp. It is a $7,000,000 concern.

Now, at 57, he lives a retired life at Dayton, persistently working at aeronautical research.

Flying Developments. That first flight was over only 120 feet of ground and lasted only 12 seconds. During the 25 years since then various planes have crossed the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans. They have risen to 38,418 ft., stayed in the air 65 hrs. 25 min., traveled 4,466 miles without alighting, sped 319 m. p. h. They have crossed North America from the Pacific to the Atlantic in 18 hr. 58 min., from the Atlantic to the Pacific in 24 hr. 51 min.

Passenger, express and mail planes cover 20,327 miles of routes. (Railroads on their silver anniversary had only 9,021 miles of trackage.)

Plane Manufacture. Last year 2,000 planes were manufactured and sold. This year the number will be 10,000, next year 20,000. About 150 concerns are now making planes. But scarcely a score make 95% of the output. As happened with the automobile industry, some of the airplane leaders will fail, some of the others will grow big. There will be mergers. Airplane securities have an active sale. They are all speculative at present..

The chart (left) gives some current information on a few of the important manufacturers. Changes occur daily.

Motor Manufacture. The Wrights in 1903 could get no one to make them a suitable flying motor; they invented one themselves. It was vertical and water-cooled. But the Wright Aeronautical Corp., which bought their airplane patents now makes radial air-cooled (whirlwind and cyclone) motors, but no planes. Nearly 3,000 Wright whirlwinds will have been made & sold this year. Pratt & Whitney (Wasp & Hornet radial motors) is the next largest motor maker, with 1,200 output this year. Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Co. makes V-type motors for its own planes; Fairchild Aviation Corp. is almost ready to market its Caminez radial engine. Packard and Velie, among motor car engine makers, have modified their motors for flying.

Transportation. There are about 30 operators of scheduled flying routes in the U. S.,* and about 600 more who run planes for hire on special trips. They can make money only on long, fast trips, for the slower railroads and motor buses are much cheaper. So the market for transport planes is limited.

Unlimited however is the field for sport planes and flying boats. Flying boats (Fairchild, Loening and Sikorsky are the leading makers) are useful for getting to the harbors of large cities from outlying airports and suburban homes. At present they are too expensive for all but rich businessmen.

Sport planes on the other hand are cheap, safe and handy, and so are popular. They sell well and have rapidly become a main support of the aviation industry. The limit of their sale (their saturation point) is far off.

Fares—Air v. Rail. To travel by air now costs on the average three times as much as by rail (without sleeping car). Some comparisons:

Rail —Air

Seattle — Los Angeles . . . . . . . . $47.46. . . . $125

Salt Lake City — Los Angeles. . . . 42.32 . . . .60

San Francisco — Los Angeles. . . . .17.04 . . . .50

Tucson — Los Angeles . . . . . . . . . 18.12 . . . .40

Chicago — N. Y. . . . . . . . . . . . .. ..32.70 . . . . 100

Boston — N Y . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .8.26 . . . . . .25

Montreal — N. Y . . .. . . . . . . . . . .14.01 . . . . 50

Cleveland — N. Y . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.55. . . .85

Washington — N. Y . .. . . . . . . . . . .8.14. . . . . 30

* A lazy, rambling hamlet of less than 500 population on the long sandy reef that tidies up the ragged eastern shore of North Carolina. The reef at Kitty Hawk encloses Albemarle Sound; further south it makes Pamlico Sound.

* Important ones: Boeing Air Transport, Western Air Express, National Air Transport, Pitcairn Aviation, Colonial Air Transport and Colonial Western Airways, Pan-American Air Transport, Transcontinental Air Transport, Atlantic Coast Airways.