A followup to yesterday’s New York Times Traveler story on Orville Wright‘s historic flight. Today’s paper reports, under the banner headline of Spain is Facing Outbreak of Civil War, it reports that Wright failed to fly, and got three days more, which explains the historical note that the flight took place July 30th.
The entire day of July 28th, 1909 was one of “mishaps and disappointments” for the aeroplane experiments. Two of the Signal Corps balloons broke free in the wind, and one is still missing. A cross wind and a clogged fuel pipe further complicated the test.The Wrights even tried to fly up until it became dark so as to not disappoint the President. Unfortunately, a crowd of approximately 14,000 people, including the President William Howard Taft, Vice-President John Sherman and a hundred other important officials went back to the capital disappointed at about 8PM.
The Wrights’ agreement with the military had been scheduled to end at midnight, but Secretary of War Dickinson and the President agreed to the requested three day extension.
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