28. Comte de la Vaulx, La Triomphe de la Navigation Aérienne (Paris, 1911), p. 274.
29. Archdeacon, “M. Chanute en Paris,” 226.
30. de La Vaulx, La Triomphe, p. 274.
31. Ferber to Archdeacon, April 1903, in Archdeacon, “M. Chanute en Paris,” 226.
CHAPTER 19
1. Orville Wright to George Spratt, June 7, 1903, in Marvin W. McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1953, cited hereafter as Papers), vol. 1, p. 313.
2. Octave Chanute to Wilbur Wright, June 30, 1903, in ibid., p. 335.
3. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, July 14, 1903, in ibid., p. 341.
4. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, July 22, 1903, in ibid., p. 345.
5. Octave Chanute to Wilbur Wright, July 23, 1903, in ibid., p. 346.
6. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, July 24, 1903, in ibid.
7. Octave Chanute to Wilbur Wright, July 27, 1903, in ibid., p. 348.
8. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, August 23, 1903, in ibid., p. 350.
9. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, September 19, 1903, in ibid., pp. 354–355.
10. Ibid., vol. 2, Appendix 5, “Aeroplanes and Motors,” p. 1187.
11. S. P. Langley to Octave Chanute, June 1897, Chanute Papers, LC.
12. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, October 13, 1903, in Papers vol. 1, p. 364.
13. Orville Wright to Katharine Wright, November 1, 1903, in ibid., p. 375, note 2.
14. Ibid., p. 374.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid., p. 337, note 1.
17. Orville Wright to Katharine and Milton Wright, November 15, 1903, in ibid., p. 381.
18. Orville Wright, Diary D, November 15, 1903, in ibid., p. 380.
19. For a more complete treatment of the Langley Aerodrome program, see Tom D. Crouch, A Dream of Wings: Americans and the Airplane, 1875–1905 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981).
20. Orville Wright to Milton Wright, December 15, 1903, in Papers, vol. 1, p. 393.
21. Wilbur Wright to Milton Wright and Katharine Wright, December 14, 1903, in ibid., pp. 392–393.
22. Wilbur Wright to Milton Wright and Katharine Wright, November 23, 1903, in ibid., p. 383.
23. William 0. Saunders, “Then We Quit Laughing,” Collier’s (Sept. 17, 1927), 24.
24. William Tate, “With the Wrights at Kitty Hawk,” The Aeronautical Review (December 1928), 128–132.
25. Orville Wright to Samuel Acheson, January 22, 1937, in Papers, vol. 1, P. 397.
26. Milton Wright, Diary, December 14, 1903, box 8, WSU.
27. Papers, plate 71.
28. Ivonette Wright Miller, Unpublished reminiscences, author’s collection.
29. Octave Chanute to Katharine Wright, December 17, 1903, in Papers, vol. 1, P. 397.
30. Ivonette Wright Miller, Unpublished reminiscences.
31. Wright Scrapbooks, 1903, Wright Papers, LC.
32. Orville Wright to Katharine Wright, December 23, 1903, in Papers, vol. 1, p. 400.
CHAPTER 20
1. Fred C. Kelly, ed., Miracle at Kitty Hawk: The Letters of Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1951), p. 120.
2. John R. McMahon, The Wright Brothers: Fathers of Flight (Boston: Little, Brown, 1930), p. 149.
3. Wilbur Wright to Albert Francis Zahm, December 22, 1905, in Marvin W. McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1953, cited hereafter as Papers), vol. 1, p. 537.
4. F. Ferber to Octave Chanute, January 27, 1904, Chanute Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (cited hereafter as Chanute Papers, LC).
5. F. Ferber to E. Archdeacon, n.d. [1904], in vol. 1, Papers, p. 424, note 1.
6. Victor Tatin, “L’Analyse des Expériences d’Aviation,” L’Aérophile (February 1904). The quotations that follow are from the same source.
7. Augustus Moore Herring to the Wright brothers, December 26, 1903, in Papers, vol. 1, p. 413, note 2.
8. Octave Chanute to Wilbur Wright, December 27, 1903, in ibid., p. 401; Octave Chanute to Patrick Alexander, January 18, 1904, Chanute Papers, LC.
9. Octave Chanute to Wilbur Wright, January 20, 1903, Chanute Papers, LC.
10. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, January 18, 1904, Chanute Papers, LC.
11. Octave Chanute to Wilbur Wright, January 23, 1910, Papers, vol. 1, pp. 980–981.
12. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, June 21, 1904, in Kelly, ed., Miracle, p. 130.
13. William Werthner, “Personal Recollections of the Wrights,” Aero Club of America Bulletin (July 1912), vol. 1, 13. See also Orville Wright botany notebook, and William Werthner, Plant Descriptions and Field Notes, Season of ’87, both in Wright Collection, series 2, file 3, box 3, WSU.
14. The comment from Huffman appears in an undated Dayton news article (c. 1908), Wright Scrapbooks, 1908, Wright Papers, LC.
15. The comment from Waddell appears in ibid.
16. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, May 27, 1904, in Papers, vol. 1, p. 437.
17. Fred C. Kelly, The Wright Brothers: A Biography Authorized by Orville Wright (New York: Ballantine Books, 1956), p. 84.
18. Arthur Renstrom, Wilbur and Orville Wright: A Chronology Commemorating the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Orville Wright (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1975). Renstrom provides a complete checklist of all Wright flights, 1900–14.
19. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, August 8, 1904, in Papers, vol. I, pp. 448–449.
20. Kelly, Wright Brothers, p. 76.
21. A. I. Root, “Our Homes,” Gleanings in Bee Culture, (Jan. 1, 1905), vol. 33, no. 1, 38.
22. Wilbur Wright, Diary E, November 9, 1904, in Papers, vol. 1, p. 463.
CHAPTER 21
1. Alfred Gollin, No Longer an Island: Britain and the Wright Brothers, 1902–1909 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1984), pp. 64–65.
2. Halford Mackinder, “The Geographic Pivot of History,” The Geographical Journal (April 1904), 441; see Gollin, No Longer an Island, for a more complete treatment.
3. L. S. Amery, My Political Life (London, 1953), vol. 1, p. 229. See also Gollin, No Longer an Island.
4. Percy B. Walker, Early Aviation at Farnborough, Vol. 2, The First Aeroplanes (London: Macdonald, 1974), p. 12.
5. Ibid., p. 18.
6. “Wright Brothers’ English Negotiations,” February 8, 1907, in Gollin, No Longer an Island, p. 69.
7. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, June 1, 1905, in Fred C. Kelly, ed., Miracle at Kitty Hawk: The Letters of Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1951), p. 42.
8. Wilbur and Orville Wright to J. E. Capper, January 10, 1905, quoted in Walker, Early Aviation, pp. 24–25.
9. Wilbur and Orville Wright to R. M. Nevin, January 18, 1905, in Kelly, ed., Miracle, p. 135.
10. G. L. Gillispie to R. M. Nevin, in ibid., p. 137.
11. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, June 1, 1905, in Marvin W. McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1953, cited hereafter as Papers), vol. 1, p. 494.
12. “Fads, Frauds and Follies Cripple Nation’s Finances,” Brooklyn Eagle, March 11, 1904; Tom D. Crouch, A Dream of Wings: Americans and the Airplane, 1875–1905 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981), offers a more complete discussion of the congressional reaction to the failure of the Langley program.
13. J. E. Capper to G.O.C. Royal Engineers, Aldershot Command, in Walker, Early Aviation, p. 26.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid., p. 30.
16. Wilbur and Orville Wright to H. N. Dumbleton, March 1, 1905, in ibid.
17. R. H. Brade to Wilbur and Orville Wright, May 13, 1905, in ibid., p. 34.
18. Wilbur Wright, Diary F, 1905, Papers, vol. 1, p. 501.
19. For a more complete treatment of Montgomery, see Arthur Dunning Spearman, John Joseph Montgomery: Father of Basic Flying (Santa Clara, Calif.: University of Santa Clara, 1967).
20. Wilbu
r Wright to Octave Chanute, August 6, 1905, in Papers, vol. 1, p. 504.
21. For the best technical treatment of the 1905 Flyer, see Frederick J. Hooven, “Longitudinal Dynamics of the Wright Brothers Early Flyers: A Study in Computer Simulation of Flight,” in Howard Wolko, ed., The Wright Flyer: An Engineering Perspective (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987).
22. Hildebrandt, “The Wright Brothers’ Flying Machine,” The American Magazine of Aeronautics (January 1908), 13–16.
23. Ibid., p. 14.
24. Ibid., p. 15.
25. Quoted in Fred C. Kelly, The Wright Brothers (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1943). pp. 108–109.
26. Kelly, Wright Brothers, remains a useful treatment of the Wrights’ relationship with the press.
CHAPTER 22
1. Orville Wright to George Spratt, June 7, 1903, in Marvin W. McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1953, cited hereafter as Papers), vol. 1, p. 313.
2. Octave Chanute to Wilbur Wright, January 23, 1910, in ibid., vol. 2, p. 981.
3. Percy B. Walker, Early Aviation at Farnborough: Vol. 2 The First Aeroplanes (London: Macdonald, 1974), p. xv.
4. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, January 29, 1910, in Papers, vol. 2, p. 983.
5. Wright Brothers to W. H. Taft, October 9, 1905, in Fred C. Kelly, ed., Miracle at Kitty Hawk: The Letters of Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1951), p. 149.
6. J. C. Bates to Wright Brothers, October 16, 1905, in ibid., p. 149.
7. J. C. Bates to Wright Brothers, October 24, 1905, in ibid., p. 151.
8. Walker, Early Aviation, pp. 35–43.
9. H. Foster to Wright Brothers, [?] December 8, 1905, in ibid., p. 42.
10. R. M. Ruck to Brig. Gen. Wolfe Murray, January 18, 1906, in ibid., p. 46.
11. F. Ferber to Wilbur Wright, October 21, 1905, in Papers, vol. 1, p. 524.
12. Wilbur Wright to F. Ferber, November 4, 1905,. in ibid.
13. Carl Dienstbach, “Dus Zwiete Lebansjahr der Praktische Flugmaschine,” Illustriete Aeronautische Mitteilungen (February 1906), 50–54.
14. “The Wright Aeroplane and Its Fabled Performances,” Scientific American (Jan. 13, 1906), 40.
15. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, December 4, 1905, in Papers, vol. 2, p. 529.
16. Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith, The Rebirth of European Aviation, 1902–1908 (London: HMSO, 1974), p. 192.
17. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, April 28, 1906, in Kelly, ed., Miracle, p. 175.
18. Wilbur Wright to Lt. Col. A.E.W. Gleichen, July 31, 1906, in Walker, Early Aviation, p. 55.
19. J. E. Capper to Director, Fortifications and Works, September 6, 1906, in ibid., p. 59.
20. For full details of the work of J. W. Dunne, see Walker, Early Aviation, pp. 163–263.
21. “The Wright Aeroplane and Its Performances,” Scientific American (April 7, 1906), 291–292.
22. On the personality and appearance of G. H. Curtiss, see C. R. Roseberry, Glenn Curtiss: Pioneer of Flight (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1972).
23. Roseberry, Curtiss, pp. 49–53; Kelly, ed., Miracle, p. 435.
24. “Fliers or Liars,” New York Herald (Paris Edition), February 10, 1906.
CHAPTER 23
1. Octave Chanute to Wilbur Wright, October 15, 1906, in Marvin W. McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1953, cited hereafter as Papers), vol. 2, pp. 730–731.
2. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, October 10, 1906, in ibid., p. 729.
3. Ibid., p. 730.
4. Octave Chanute to Wilbur Wright, October 15, 1906, in ibid., pp. 730–731.
5. Octave Chanute to Wilbur Wright, November 1, 1906, in ibid., p. 733.
6. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, November 2, 1906, in ibid., p. 734.
7. “L’Aéroplane Archdeacon et les expériences de Merlimont,” L’Aérophile (June 1905). Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith, The Rebirth of European Aviation, 1902–1908: A Study of the Wright Brothers’ Influence (London: HMSO, 1974), has served as a general guide to early European aeronautics.
8. Robert Esnault-Pelterie, “Expériences d’Aviation exécutées en 1904, en verification de celles des fréres Wright,” L’Aérophile (June 1905).
9. Ibid.
10. “L’Aéroplane Archdeacon …” L’Aérophile (June 1905).
11. Gabriel Voisin, Men, Women and 10,000 Kites (London: Putnam, 1963).
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Biographical material on Bleriot and information on his early aircraft can be found in Simone Rubel Blériot, “Souvenirs d’Enfance,” Icare (1979), 97; Michael L’Hospice, Match Pour La Manche (Paris, 1964); Charles Fontaine, Comment Blériot a Traverse La Manche (Paris, 1909). Tom D. Crouch, Blériot XI: The Story of a Classic Aircraft (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982), is virtually the only full treatment of the subject in English.
17. New York Herald (Paris Edition), November 13, 1906 (?). Undated copy of article found in Bell Scrapbooks, Archives, National Air and Space Museum.
18. Ernest Archdeacon, in Gibbs-Smith, Rebirth, p. 223.
19. Undated and unidentified article in Bell Scrapbooks, NASM.
20. New York Herald (?), undated article, 1906, Bell Scrapbooks, NASM.
21. Ibid.
CHAPTER 24
1. Milton Wright, Diary, November 30, 1906, box 10, file 2, WSU.
2. Charles Ranlett Flint, Memories of an Active Life: Men and Ships and Sealing Wax (New York: Putnam, 1923).
3. Fred C. Kelly, The Wright Brothers (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1943), pp. 118–119.
4. “The Genesis of the First Successful Aeroplane,” Scientific American (Dec. 15, 1906), 402.
5. Kelly provides the best discussion of the evolving proposals moving back and forth between the Wrights and Flint representatives.
6. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, December 20, 1906, in Marvin W. McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1953, cited hereafter as Papers), vol. 2, p. 743.
7. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, January 28, 1907, in ibid., p. 749.
8. Kelly, Wright Brothers, pp. 97–98.
9. Dayton Herald, May 21, 1907; Orville Wright to H. C. Richardson, February 17, 1926, in Papers, vol. 2, pp. 1137–1138.
10. Wilbur Wright to Milton Wright, July 20, 1907, in ibid., 803–804.
11. Orville Wright to Board of Ordnanace and Fortification, May 17, 1907, in ibid., p. 761.
12. Orville Wright to Board of Ordnanace and Fortification, May 31, 1907, in ibid., p. 766.
13. H. O. Berg to Flint and Co., May 26, 1907, in Fred C. Kelly, ed., Miracle at Kitty Hawk: The Letters of Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1951), p. 205.
14. Alfred Gollin, No Longer an Island: Britain and the Wright Brothers, 1902–1909 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1984), pp. 213–221.
15. Wilbur Wright to Orville Wright, June 11, 1907, in Papers, vol. 2, p. 773.
16. Ibid.
17. Wilbur Wright to Katharine Wright, June 8, 1907, in Kelly, ed., Miracle, p. 212.
18. Wilbur Wright to Orville Wright, May 30, 1907; Wilbur Wright to Katharine Wright, July 24, 1907; and Wilbur Wright to Katharine Wright, June 18, 1907; all in ibid., pp. 209, 227, and 217.
19. Wilbur Wright, Diary, July 17, 1907, in Papers, vol. 2, p. 798. See also Wilbur Wright, “Flying as a Sport—Its Possibilities,” Scientific American (Feb. 29, 1908), p. 135.
20. Wilbur Wright, Diary, July 8, 1907, in ibid., p. 790.
21. F. Ferber to Georges Besançon, L’Aérophile (June 1907), 107–108.
22. Wilbur Wright, Diary, July 24, 1907, in Papers, vol. 2, pp. 807–808.
23. Orville Wright to Wilbur Wright, July 11, 1907, in ibid., p. 793.
24. Orville Wright to Wilbur Wright, July 1, 1907, in ibid., p. 783.
25. Wil
bur Wright to Milton Wright, July 2, 1907, in ibid., pp. 803–804.
26. Ibid., p. 803.
27. Ibid.
28. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, September 2, 1907, in ibid., p. 819.
29. Wilbur Wright, Diary, August 17–September 11, 1907, in ibid., p. 839.
30. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, September 2, 1907, in ibid., p. 819.
31. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, December 9, 1907, in ibid., p. 839.
32. Ibid.
33. Stephen F. Tillman, Man Unafraid: The Miracle of Military Aviation (Washington D.C.: Army Times Publishing Co., 1958), pp. 14–15.
34. Ibid., p. 15.
35. All material on the Grand Prix is drawn from appropriate issues of L’Aérophile; C. H. Gibbs-Smith, The Rebirth of European Aviation, 1902–1908 (London: HMSO, 1974); and C. H. Gibbs-Smith, The Invention of the Aeroplane, 1799–1909 (London: Faber & Faber, 1965).
36. Orville Wright to Milton Wright, November 19, 1907, in Kelly, ed., Miracle, pp. 240–241.
37. Ibid.
38. Gibbs-Smith, Rebirth, p. 245.
CHAPTER 25
1. Wilbur Wright to Milton Wright, November 22, 1907, in Fred C. Kelly, ed., Miracle at Kitty Hawk: The Letters of Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1951), p. 241.
2. Stephen Tillman, Man Unafraid: The Miracle of Military Aviation (Washington, D.C.: Army Times Publishing Co., 1954), p. 15.
3. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, December 3, 1907, in Marvin W. McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1953 cited hereafter as Papers), vol. 2, pp. 835–836.
4. Tillman, Man Unafraid, pp. 13–17.
5. Ibid., p. 16.
6. Ibid., p. 17; and James Means to Octave Chanute, January 10, 1908, Octave Chanute Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
7. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, January 16, 1908, in Papers, vol. 2, p. 849.
8. Tillman, Man Unafraid, pp. 17–19.
9. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, April 8, 1908, in Papers, vol. 2, p. 861.
10. The discussion of Bell and the AEA is based on a variety of sources, including Louis Casey, Curtiss: The Hammondsport Era, 1907–1917 (New York: Crown, 1981); J. W. Parkin, Bell and Baldwin: Their Development of Aerodromes and Hydrodromes at Baddeck, Nova Scotia (Toronto: University of Toronto, 1964); and C. H. Roseberry, Glenn Curtiss: Pioneer of Flight (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1972).
The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright Page 65