A few months later, in July, 1907, an aëronautical division was established in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer of the Army. In December of that year the Army asked for bids on the construction of an airplane. The specifications called for a machine that could carry a weight of 350 pounds. It had to be able to remain in the air continuously for one hour with two passengers. During the flight the machine was required to remain under perfect control and to be capable of being steered in all directions. Its speed should be 40 miles per hour. The machine had to be built so that it could be taken apart and packed for transportation in army wagons. Then it had to be reassembled and put in flying condition in one hour. By this time inventors everywhere were working on flying machines, but the Wright Brothers were the only ones who put in an appearance with an airplane for the Army trials in September, 1908. Unfortunately the trial was a failure. The huge crowd gathered at Fort Meyer, Virginia, was horrified to see a propeller fly off and the machine crash, killing Lieutenant Tom Selfridge, the Army observer, and injuring Orville Wright. Tom Selfridge thus became the first American air martyr, and the future dimmed for the Wright Brothers and the airplane. [Illustration: 1909 WINGSPAN 36 FEET LENGTH 28 FEET THE 1909 WRIGHT BIPLANE BOUGHT BY THE UNITED STATES ARMY WAS THE WORLD’S FIRST MILITARY AIRPLANE. POWER ONE 4-CYLINDER 30-HP. IN-LINE ENGINE THE WRIGHTS DESIGNED AND BUILT THE FOUR-CYLINDER, VERTICAL, IN-LINE, WATER-COOLED ENGINE THEMSELVES. SPEED ONE HOUR 44 MILES RANGE 75 MILES CEILING 3,000+ FEET PAYLOAD A PILOT AND ONE PASSENGER, TOTAL WEIGHT 350 LBS. THE WRIGHT ARMY PLANE OBTAINED ITS _THRUST_ FROM TWO OPPOSITE-TURNING, EIGHT AND ONE-HALF-FOOT PROPELLERS. ITS FRAME WAS CONSTRUCTED OF SPRUCE WOOD AND WAS COVERED WITH UNDOPED FABRIC. THE GROSS WEIGHT OF THE WRIGHT MACHINE WAS 1,200 POUNDS. THE PLANE WAS OF THE FINEST WORKMANSHIP AND ITS PERFORMANCE EXCEEDED THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE ARMY OFFICERS WHO OBSERVED ITS RIGID TESTS. THAT THE U.S. ARMY WAS THE FIRST IN THE WORLD TO OWN A MILITARY AIRPLANE WAS DUE TO THE LONG AND PAINSTAKING WORK OF THE WRIGHT BROTHERS. THEIR SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEMS OF FLIGHT AND THEIR CAREFULLY DEVELOPED PLANS GAVE THE WORLD A PATTERN FOR THE FUTURE OF AVIATION.] [Illustration] FIRST ARMY AIRPLANE