Aeronautics -- United States -- Biography; Wright, Orville, 1871-1948; Wright, Wilbur, 1867-1912
Business affairs had been complicated earlier that year by the fact
that Dayton had the worst flood in its history. The Wright factory
was not under water but not many of the employees could reach the
building. Among the hundreds of houses under water was the Wright home
on Hawthorne Street. To Orville a serious part of the loss there was
the damage to photographic negatives showing his and Wilbur’s progress
toward flight. But the negative of the famous picture of the first
power flight was not much harmed.
Accompanied by his sister, Orville made his last trip to Europe in
1913, on business relating to a patent suit in Germany. At about the
same time he sanctioned the forming of a Wright company in England.
Before Wilbur’s death, there had been opportunities for a company
in England, but the brothers had held back because all the offers
appeared to be purely stock promotions in which the names of members
of the English nobility would appear as sponsors. The British company
as finally organized did not make planes itself, but issued licenses
for use of the patents. Within a year after it was formed the English
company accepted from the British Government a flat payment for all
claims against the government, for use of the Wright patents up to
that time and during the remainder of the life of the basic patents.
Though the amount paid was no trifling sum, the settlement was widely
applauded by prominent Englishmen, among them Lord Northcliffe, as
showing a generous attitude on the part of the patent owner--about
as little as could have been compatible with full recognition of the
priority of the Wrights’ invention.
By this time, The Wright Co. had more applications to train student
pilots than they could handle. Even a few young women wished to become
pilots.
Two capable students, of a somewhat earlier period, destined to go
far in aviation, were Thomas D. Milling, later General Milling, of
the United States Army Air Corps; and Henry H. Arnold, who during the
Second World War was Lieutenant General Arnold, Commanding General of
the Army Air Forces and Deputy Chief of Staff for Air.
One unfortunate student pilot, who had begun his training at the Wright
School in 1912, later got himself into much trouble. This man became
one of the best flyers in the United States. As he had plenty of money
he bought a plane of his own, and he used to give free exhibitions at
his estate near Philadelphia. In one way or another he did much for
aviation. But in 1917, when the United States entered the First World
War, that young pilot refused to register in the draft and became
notorious as a draft evader. His name? Grover Cleveland Bergdoll. The
early Wright plane he had bought is today on exhibition at the Franklin
Institute in Philadelphia. It is believed to be the only authentic
Model B--the first model built by The Wright Co.--in existence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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