As our original plans provided for the building of one machine designed
by each member of the Association, with the assistance of all the
others, the building of the next one fell to Mr. Baldwin, and it was
called the "White Wing." The design of the "Red Wing" was followed in
many details, but several things were added which we believed would give
increased stability and greater flying power. The construction of the
"White Wing" was begun at once, but before we could complete it the ice
on the lake had yielded to the spring winds and we were therefore
obliged to transfer our future trials to land. This required wheels for
starting and alighting in the place of the ice runners used on the "Red
Wing." An old half-mile race track a short distance up the valley from
the Lake was rented and put in shape for flights. The place was called
"Stony Brook Farm," and it was for a long time afterward the scene of
our flying exploits at Hammondsport.
It would be tiresome to the reader to be told of all the discouragements
we met with; of the disheartening smashes we suffered; how almost every
time we managed to get the new machine off the ground for brief but
encouraging flights, it would come down so hard that something would
give way and we would have to set about the task of building it up
again. We soon learned that it was comparatively easy to get the machine
up in the air, but it was most difficult to get it back to earth without
smashing something. The fact was, we had not learned the art of landing
an aeroplane with ease and safety–an absolutely necessary art for every
successful aviator to know. It seemed one day that the limit of hard
luck had been reached, when, after a brief flight and a somewhat rough
landing, the machine folded up and sank down on its side, like a wounded
bird, just as we were feeling pretty good over a successful landing
without breakage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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