The causes of these troubles--too technical for explanation here--were
not entirely overcome till the end of September, 1905. The flights then
rapidly increased in length, till experiments were discontinued after
October 5, on account of the number of people attracted to the field.
Although made on a ground open on every side, and bordered on two sides
by much-traveled thoroughfares, with electric cars passing every hour,
and seen by all the people living in the neighborhood for miles around,
and by several hundred others, yet these flights have been made by some
newspapers the subject of a great "mystery."
A practical flyer having been finally realized, we spent the years 1906
and 1907 in constructing new machines and in business negotiations. It
was not till May of this year that experiments (discontinued in October,
1905) were resumed at Kill Devil Hill, North Carolina. The recent
flights were made to test the ability of our machine to meet the
requirements of a contract with the United States Government to furnish
a flyer capable of carrying two men and sufficient fuel supplies for a
flight of 125 miles, with a speed of 40 miles an hour. The machine used
in these tests was the same one with which the flights were made at
Simms Station in 1905, though several changes had been made to meet
present requirements. The operator assumed a sitting position, instead
of lying prone, as in 1905, and a seat was added for a passenger. A
larger motor was installed, and radiators and gasoline reservoirs of
larger capacity replaced those previously used. No attempt was made to
make high or long flights.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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