Orville Wright made the two greatest aeroplane flights ever made publicly in this country, when, during a test at Fort Myers, he remained in the air for over 11 minutes on one flight and nearly 8 minutes on the other flight.
Through both flights, Mr. Wright apparently had the machine under perfect control, rising at times to 60 feet and making sharp turns.
When Mr. Wright signaled his assistant to release the machine, it shot along the track and rose immediately. Silent with amazement, the large crowd that had waited for several hours for the expected flight, watched the aeroplane whirl around the ground, tilting up at the turns like an automobile taking the bank at the curves of a race course. Sweeping to earth like a giant eagle, the machine was brought down by Mr. Wright within 30 feet of the starting apparatus, having made 13 complete circles of the field in 11 minutes and 10 seconds.
Twenty minutes after the first trial, Mr. Wright started up for the second attempt. On one trip around the field he flew over the “aerial garage,” where the aeroplane is housed. After eight circles of the field, Mr. Wright brought the machine down within a few feet of the garage.
It was estimated that Mr. Wright covered 6 1/4 miles in the first flight at the average speed of 36 miles an hour.
Delphos Herald, Sept. 9, 1908
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Gives Spectators
A Scare
In a flight requiring great skill on account of a ten-mile wind, Orville Wright broke the world’s record for time and distance for a heavier than air machine which he had himself established.
He flew in a circle around the drill ground at Fort Myer, fifty-eight times in sixty-five minutes and 52 seconds. The flight was witnessed by nearly a thousand people.
When Mr. Wright signaled C.E. Taylor, his mechanic, to release the machine, the wind was blowing about three miles an hour. The aeroplane rose from the ground almost immediately after leaving the single starting rail. It continued to climb higher with each round of the field, until it reached an altitude of 75 feet. For the first thirty rounds the machine flew smoothly, but from then on it was seen to pitch at the turns, as the breeze struck it.
Whenever the machine pitched, it could be plainly seen from below that it responded promptly to every move of the levers by the operator.
A guest of wind, unusually strong, struck the aerial flyer during the 42nd round, and it plunged sharply, causing the crowd to explain in alarm. Mr. Wright then brought his machine lower, but on the 53rd round he had reached an altitude of 200 feet.
When Mr. Wright completed his 54th round he had beaten his own record.
He came down at the north end of the field at the end of the fifty-eighth round, landing easily. The calvary squadron, on duty to protect the machine, formed a cordon around it and Major Squier, acting chief signal officer, pressed forward to congratulate the aviator.
If Mr. Wright makes 42 miles an hour, he will be entitled to a bonus of $5,000 over the contract price of $25,000 for his machine.
Delphos Herald, Sept. 11, 1908
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Occupants of Machine
Hurled to Earth
Orville Wright met with a tragical mishap while making a two-man flight. He was accompanied by Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge of the army signal corps.
The Lieutenant was fatally injured and died in the hospital at Ft. Myer a few hours later. Mr. Wright was seriously injured, but is expected to recover.
While the machine was encircling the drill grounds, a propeller blade snapped off and hitting some other part of the intricate mechanism, caused it to overturn in the air and fall to the ground, enveloping the two in the debris.
Soldiers and spectators ran across the field and assisted in lifting the two men from under the tangled mess of machinery, rods, wire and shreds of muslin. Mr. Wright was conscious and said, “Oh, hurry and lift the motor off.”
Lieutenant Selfridge was unconscious and had apparently struck the ground with great force.
Dr. Watters, a New York physician, was one of the first to reach the spot and rendered first aid to the injured men. When their wounds had been bandaged, Mr. Wright and Lieut. Selfridge were taken to the Ft. Myer hospital, at the other end of the field. Mr. Wright had lapsed into a state of semiconsciousness by the time he reached the hospital, while the Lieutenant did not regain consciousness.
After a hurried examination, it was announced that Mr. Wright was not seriously injured. He is suffering from a fracture of his left thigh and several ribs on the right side are fractured. Both men received deep cuts about the head. Mr. Wright regained consciousness at the hospital.
At the start of the crash, one of the spectators shouted: “What is that? Something fell.” Immediately all eyes were turned on the aeroplane, and it was seen to turn over on its left side and, pausing a moment, made a complete turn and then came swooping to the earth in a cloud of dust. No effort on the part of the aviator could possibly have averted the accident. Planes and rudders were absolutely incapable of righting the machine when it had turned in this manner.
Orville Wright had hoped and expected to meet all the requirements without a serious flaw developing in the machine his genius had developed.
It was but a few days ago that he said the greatest danger which he had to face was his own inexperience and the possibility that he may do something wrong while in flight. He commented on the change in methods of operating the levers as compared with his previous machines, and pointed out that where the movements of the old machine were instinctive, the same was not the case in the last machine, and with the latter, the operator had “to think, which is dangerous on account of the possibility of not thinking fast enough.”
Mr. Wright exercised what he believed to be extreme caution in starting his flights. Time and again he planned to make a flight, but as the hour arrived he refused to take out his machine because of unfavorable conditions. In the first flight at Fort Myer, Wright made one of the mistakes he had feared and pulled a lever  in the wrong direction, but fortunately the machine descended without damage.
“I have flown in a 20-mile breeze,” he said, “and I expect to do it again, but not until I get acquainted with the arrangement of seats and levers.”
Several days ago an admirer of the Wright brothers made application to a Washington insurance agent for a life policy in favor of Orville Wright. The agency applied to the home office. The agent received a letter from them saying that, “we can not issue a policy in favor of Mr. Wright or any one else in his line of work. We consider the hazard too great at this time, but it is possible that in the future, aerial navigation will reach a development which will change this view.
Delphos Herald, Sept. 18, 1908
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Wright is Busy
in Lemans, France
The tests now being made by Wilbur Wright, the aeroplanist, continue to attract large crowds of spectators, and that there is a large amount of confidence in Mr. Wright’s work and in his aeroplane is evidenced by the fact that many of the most prominent officials gathered here to witness the trials are eager to take the passenger seat in the machine.
The aeroplanist made several flights which were witnessed by Dowager Queen Margarita of Italy, and among his passengers were Lieutenant General Baden-Powell of the British army, Count Serge Kapnakoff, a chamberlain to the Russian emperor, Mme. Bollee and Commandant Bouttieuax, director of the military aerostatic park at Meudon.
During these flights, which were not very long Mr. Wright kept his machine comparatively close to the ground. Later, Mr. Wright was presented to the Dowager Queen, who warmly congratulated him. A public subscription has been opened at Lemans with the object of presenting a testimonial to Mr. Wright.
Delphos Herald, Oct. 9, 1908
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Ida Holdgreve
Worked For Wilbur
and Orville
Miss Ida Holdgreve, 92, securely stitched for herself a special niche in history — when in the early 1900’s in Dayton, she answered a newspaper ad. She treasures a bit of special cloth, a small book containing notations about yardages and sewing times … and several signed Christmas cards and a thank-you note from Orville Wright. Her working notes read, “4 wheel covers, 3 yards; 2 inside wheel covers, first cut, 5 minutes; first sewing, 5 minutes, assembly 5 minutes.” On her 88th birthday, she calmly accepted her first flight in any aircraft, from the Chamber of Commerce.
“I used to go out sewing by the day. I saw an ad in the paper that said “Plane sewing,’ and so I thought I’d go out and see what plane sewing was. So I went and took the job right away. I started in 1910 and was paid $8 to $10 a week. Of course you could get along with that nicely in those days. I saw lots of the early planes when they would fly them in here. I had to repair the holes in them with a curved needle and that was hard. I did the measuring myself for the material. Each plane took about 165 yards. This was the most exciting job. I did all the sewing for close to ten years. I didn’t mark it down. If I had known it was going to happen like it did, I would have paid more attention. The building where we made the planes is all offices now of Inland Manufacturing. I didn’t tell very many people that I worked there, but I always thought to myself, “Isn’t it nice to work with someone who has invented something like the airplane?”
“It was a little harder to get acquainted with Wilbur. He always seemed more serious than Orville. The Wrights were lovely brothers.”
(Ida was my great aunt. R.H.)
From, “The Greater East
Dayton Profile, Mar. 1974
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Excerpts from an interview with Ida Holdgreve by the Delphos Herald reporter Karl Schwinnen, Aug. 23,1974.
“When I came across an ad that said, ‘Wanted: plane sewer’, well I didn’t know what that was all about, but I thought that since I had been a dressmaker for so long, I could do it. After Mr. La Chippel showed me what to do and how easy it was, I took the job.”
Ida was the only seamstress which the Wright brothers ever hired.
The brothers wanted their planes to be used for peace, not military use. They wanted them to be used for transportation or to have fun.
“At first, people in Dayton called them nuts.” ‘Those nuts don’t know anything.’ No one believed they could really fly. So then, the French asked them over and the Wright brothers stayed and flew in France. Then, in 1910, they came home and Dayton had a one or two-day celebration, a big fuss.
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Law For Airships
It was to be expected that something of the sort would happen, and that it would happen in the Sunny South, that land of imagination, and joke, and song and prohibition and moonshine. The Mayor of Kissimmee, Fla., has drafted an ordinance imposing a heavy fine for the overspeeding of dirigible balloons, claiming jurisdiction twenty-five miles in the air, also taxing the dirigibles $100 each, and appropriating money to purchase one aeroplane with which the town marshal shall pursue and capture all offenders. The marshal should certainly have a high salary for this job.
If Kissimmee has never had sight of a balloonist, it will be fully prepared with taxes and speed regulations when the balloons come. Kissimmeee has never had the experience of an automobile, but the moment the auto machine in other towns exhibited its tendency to run away with its occupants, Kissimmee will be prompt to enact rigorous regulations.
Delphos Herald, Oct. 15, 1908
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Delphos Man Tried to Build
Airplane, 10 Years
Before Wright Brothers
Before he moved to Delphos, Pete Backus had been interested in aviation since 1892, when he experimented with a glider on the family farm about two miles east of Bascome. He was 17 years old at the time. He took canvas from a threshing machine and covered a hickory framework with it. The most he could get was about 50 feet flight from the top of a straw stack. He later installed two motorcycle engines on it. When this didn’t work out, he tried t get friends in Cleveland to build a light motor with which he hoped to propel his glider. They were too busy he said and he didn’t get the motor. “Perhaps,” he said, “It’s a good thing they didn’t. I probably would have landed in a heap.”
It was not until 1896 that Otto Lillienthal, a German who was considered the chief of gliding, began to get some altitude with his own glider. He was killed during a test flight that year. This was four years after Backus’ first glider attempt.
Remember this was 10 years before the Wright Brothers flew their first airplane, that Backus was experimenting with, and attempting to perfect an air machine.
In 1915, Backus supplied Glen Curtiss with the idea of a plane that could be changed in mid-ocean from a hydroplane to a motorboat. The plane was then built at Curtiss-Gilmore airplane factory. The plane was then successfully flown over the ocean.
Backus also invented an airship (blimp?) which he said would revolutionize aeronautics. This machine flew majestically over his home and then collapsed because of a defective mechanism. He is building a new more solid model.
After the Wright Brothers flew successfully, hem ore or less turned his attention to airplane safety, and gave up the idea of building a plane. He said, “he had been beaten to the gun.”
He invented a safety device for disengaging and dropping an airplane engine with a parachute in case of a forced landing. It was so arranged that the passenger compartment would slide forward to maintain balance and act as a glider.
In 1921, Backus patented a circular airfield. One of these airfields is in full operation in San Diego, California, which has a 3,000 foot circle. Circle landing is the safest for large passenger planes and the site of the proposed Lima airport would be suitable for the circular track, according to Backus.
Backus has never ridden in an airplane and says he never will, unless it is one built by himself, or one which is equipped with all the safety devices he has invented.
From Window
To The Past, Nov. 23, 2002