Tragedy Due to Curve.
“Mr. Wright could have brought the machine down easily,” said Taylor to-night, “if it had not been off balance at the curve. It is impossible to glide in either a curve or a spiral, but it is altogether possible in direct flight. Had the accident happened thirty seconds later it would have been merely an experience and not a tragedy.”
To those standing at the head of the parade grounds the aeroplane, rounding the second turn of the far end preparatory to coming back, appeared to push its nose into the air before diving. The broken propeller blade was flung far out behind on the short flight after the first turn at the far end of the field, but so great was the speed of the rushing machine that the accident evidently was not realized until Wright had swung his rudder and twisted his horizontal planes for the second turn.
At this moment the horizontal planes in front that control the ascent and descent of the machine evidently were pointed upward, for the aeroplane seemed to jump into the air. It appeared to poise itself there for a space as long as the taking of a breath, when it dived earthward. Half way down the upper horizontal plane seemed to give way, breaking the lower horizontal. In this fashion the monster fell.
No attempt was made to-night to examine the wrecked machine carefully. It was taken apart and carried back to the aerodrome by men of the Signal Corps. It is being held there under guard until some sort of investigation can be set afoot.
Shortly after the accident a report ran through the crowd that the disaster was due to the machine having been tampered with. Officers declare the rumor to be absolutely groundless, but this phase of the matter may be looked into. No one is willing to believe that such a thing could be possible, however.
There has been a great laxity displayed in the safeguarding of the aeroplane. This has been commented upon ever since the tests at the fort began. Before the flight to-day probably 200 persons visited the aerodrome, and although soldiers from the Signal Corps kept watch, as well as Taylor, it was noticed that not one but scores of people prodded the planes, rattled the propellers, and in other ways satisfied their curiosity as to the mechanism of the machine.
Rallying from his severe injuries, Orville Wright to-night sent Lieut. Lahm to find Octave Chanute, the pioneer aeroplanist, who aided the Wright brothers
