WORLD TRIBUTE TO FIRST FLIGHT.

Shannon News, 29 January 1929, Page 1

WORLD TRIBUTE TO FIRST FLIGHT.

INCIDENTS RECALLED BY ORVILLE WRIGHT KITTY HAWK, N.C./Dec. 17th. Representatives of 40 nations- commemorated the anniversary of the first airplane flight, made 25 years ago December .17, in the presence of Orville Wright, tiie first human to A/. On the siiot where the clumsy flying machine le'tt the ground for a faltering journey.* aviation delegates . from European countries and from far off Asia and Australia participated in the dedication of two memorials,, one the corner stone of a monument to the Wright Brothers and the other, a granite boulder, placed as , a marker by the National Aeronautical Association and unveiled by Senator Hiram Bingham of Connecticut, president. A shy, slight man, clad in gray overcoat', and hat —Orville Wright—responded with an embarrassed word and a wave of the hand to honours paid him. This was, the man who, with Wilbur Wright, brought to realisation the human dream of millenniums, that man 1 should fly. Travel Over Sandy Plains. # In the group that travelled over the sandy plains to tho ceremony were one or two' who 'had witnessed the first efforts of the Wrights, both with the original gliders at the Kill Devil Hills Camp, erected in 1901, and in later developments, in 1903, 1904 and 1905. Already traditions and folk, lore have grown up round the, historical event which this isolated region cherishes as its chief pride. Some of the tales are true and some are invention, andto disentangle one from the other is al most as difficult, visitors found, as to discover the exact spot on which the original wooden hut qf the Dayton bicycle repair men was pitched. Kitty Hawk is a typical small vil ; lage composed of farm houses clustered around the nucleus of a country store, while Kill Devil Hills is a slightly larger community. The spot is one of wind-scoured sand dunes that stretch along the coast devoid of vegetation save for occasional shrubs and stunted trees, and low growing grass. The spot was picked by the would-be aviators because federal weather reports showed it to offer strong, steady winds at all seasons, suitable for gliding, in which the Wrights were first interested. Early Incidents Recalled'.

The crowd that walked about the sand dunes during the ceremonies included the foreign delegates to the In temational Aeronautical Conference, a from Dayton, 0., out-of-town residents who had motored in, and the entire population of Kitty Hawk. The latter addressed Mr. Wright as "Orville," and he remembered a large number by name. As he walked about, Mr. Wright recalled some of the earlier incidents that were interwoven with the great experiment. Gales from the Atlantic roared' over the desolate stretch, he said. A few months previous to the 1903 flight a storm blew up in which the wind reached 75 miles an hour. Not long after this .storm a stranger passed bv the Wrights' camp and learned that the two Dayton boys were attempting to ily. He remarked courteously that he supposed they could, provided they got a "suitable wind," and Mr. WrigTii observed that he evidently referred to a wind similar to the recent 75-mile-an-liour gale. One of the stops made by the visiting delegation was at the monument outside Kitty Hawk Landing, marking the spot where the Wrights began the assembly of their first experimental, glider. This was at. " Cap 'n'' Tate '& house.

The home-made glider was put together near his front porch and yard Later the cloth from the glider's wings was made into dresses for his children Captain Tate recalled. Another name frequently mentioned during the ceremony was that-of John Moore. "Johnny" Moore, 25 years ago, came over ail agog from the neighbouring community of Nags Head to see a man try to fly. i Pirst Hew 120 Feet. Mr. Bingham and other speakers to-, called that the first successful Kitty Hawk flight, lasted 12 seconds, for a, distance of 120 feet. It followed a previous unsuccessful effort made by Wilbur Wright several days earlier. The brothers were using a motor made by themselves, mounted in a machine made by themselves, and constructed according to theories which they had developed. The first trip on December 17, 1903 was made.by Orville. V I* was immediately followed by three other flights, the longest for '852 feet, lasting 50 seconds. Sortly after, a gust caught the machine as it stood by the eamp and injured it so that further flights for the year were impossible. I Contrasted with the first record of 59 seconds and 852 feet,..Mr. Bingham' pointed to existing aviation records of sustained flight for 65 hours, 25 minutes and a distance record oi 4466 miles.