It flys, will it Take Off?

[yellowwing]

AIRSHIP AFTER BUYER

Inventors of North Carolina Box Kite Machine Want Government to Purchase It
December 1903
New York Times

WASHINGTON, Dec. 25 -- The inventors of the airship which is said to have made several successful flights in North Carolina, near Kitty Hawk, are anxious to sell the use of their device to the Government. They claim that they have solved the problem of aerial navigation, and have never made a failure of any attempt to fly.

Their machine is an adaptation of the box kite idea, with a propeller working on a perpendicular shaft to raise or lower the craft, and another working on a horizontal shaft to send it forward. The machine, it is said, can be raised or lowered with perfect control, and can carry a strong gasoline engine capable of making a speed of ten miles an hour.

The test made in North Carolina will be fully reported to the Ordnance Board of the War Department, and if the machine commends itself sufficiently, further tests will be made in the vicinity of Washington, and an effort made to arrange a sale of the device to the Government. The use to which the Government would put it would be in scouting and signal work, and possibly torpedo warfare.

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Evidently Wilbur and Orville could have used a Publicist!

[Wyoming]

WTF - No picture????????????????????

Oh yeah, maybe no cameras back then.

[Phantom Blooper]

Al,They did a news clip yeaterday where there was black and white restored scratchy footage that they claimed was saved in the Kitty Hawk archives. I will try to find stills and post. Semper-Fi!

[yellowwing]

You got to love that American Innovative Spirit. Growing a culture that promotes every individual to succeed.

[Osotogary]

I think, at about the same time, the French were also making aeronautical strides and may have been in competition with the upstart Americans. I think that there was a Ken Burns documentary that covered history of flight.
Good stuff, Yellowwing. Thanks.