WRIGHT, Bishop MILTON, father of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Autograph letter signed to the journalist Carl Dienstbach. 2 1/2 pages, 8vo, lower third of the first sheet detached without loss, the postscript (on a separate small slip) cleanly split (both repairable), with original postmarked envelope. THREE DAYS AFTER THE FIRST KITTY HAWK FLIGHTS A historic letter from Bishop Wright, describing the brothers' experiments, their aircraft, and the first flights at Kitty Hawk, made a scant three days ago. Dienstbach, the New York correspondent of the German journal Aeronautische Mitteilungen , had immediately written to the Wrights in Dayton when news of their flight appeared in the newspapers. "My sons Wilbur and Orville are expected under the parental roof always their home - within a few days, when they will read your letter...The Norfolk dispatch [which announced the first successful flights but contained many gross inaccuracies] was evidently a friendly, though incorrect report. My sons say their four successful flights the 17th instant, were "from the level." There are two screw propellers directly behind the double-decked aeroplane [biplane] and none under it for uplifting it. To get under headway they laid a single-rail track straight down the hill, but began flight from the level. Their progress [in flight] was ten miles per hour against a twenty-one-mile [per hour] wind; hence, counting still air, their flight was 31 miles an hour. I do not know the distance of each several flight, but from the time maximum of 57 seconds, no one flight could have exceeded a thousand feet [the fourth and longest flight was exactly 859 feet]. All reported as to what Orville or Wilbur said is not so unlikely, but probably mythical. The height of ascents I do not know...The engine is not for ballast, nor has the aviator any car at all 'in the center of the frame.' The 'push upwards' is a myth. There is a rudder in the front and a vertical tail in the rear....The total area of the wings is 570 feet...." In a postscript, Bishop Wright adds: "Wilbur is 36, Orville 32, and they are as inseparable as twins. For several years they have read up on aeronauics...and they have studied, discussed and experimented together as natural workmen, they have invented, constructed, and operated their gliders, and finally their 'Wright Flyer' jointly....About equal credit is due each."
WRIGHT, Bishop MILTON, father of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Autograph letter signed to the journalist Carl Dienstbach. 2 1/2 pages, 8vo, lower third of the first sheet detached without loss, the postscript (on a separate small slip) cleanly split (both repairable), with original postmarked envelope. THREE DAYS AFTER THE FIRST KITTY HAWK FLIGHTS A historic letter from Bishop Wright, describing the brothers' experiments, their aircraft, and the first flights at Kitty Hawk, made a scant three days ago. Dienstbach, the New York correspondent of the German journal Aeronautische Mitteilungen , had immediately written to the Wrights in Dayton when news of their flight appeared in the newspapers. "My sons Wilbur and Orville are expected under the parental roof always their home - within a few days, when they will read your letter...The Norfolk dispatch [which announced the first successful flights but contained many gross inaccuracies] was evidently a friendly, though incorrect report. My sons say their four successful flights the 17th instant, were "from the level." There are two screw propellers directly behind the double-decked aeroplane [biplane] and none under it for uplifting it. To get under headway they laid a single-rail track straight down the hill, but began flight from the level. Their progress [in flight] was ten miles per hour against a twenty-one-mile [per hour] wind; hence, counting still air, their flight was 31 miles an hour. I do not know the distance of each several flight, but from the time maximum of 57 seconds, no one flight could have exceeded a thousand feet [the fourth and longest flight was exactly 859 feet]. All reported as to what Orville or Wilbur said is not so unlikely, but probably mythical. The height of ascents I do not know...The engine is not for ballast, nor has the aviator any car at all 'in the center of the frame.' The 'push upwards' is a myth. There is a rudder in the front and a vertical tail in the rear....The total area of the wings is 570 feet...." In a postscript, Bishop Wright adds: "Wilbur is 36, Orville 32, and they are as inseparable as twins. For several years they have read up on aeronauics...and they have studied, discussed and experimented together as natural workmen, they have invented, constructed, and operated their gliders, and finally their 'Wright Flyer' jointly....About equal credit is due each."
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
