1902-04-01, American Inventor, p.1-2

Whitehead’s Letters to American Inventor


Excerpt from
letter dated January 17, 1902

This new machine has been tried twice,
on January 17, 1902. It was intended to fly only short distances, but the
machine behaved so well that at the first trial it covered nearly two miles over
the water of Long Island Sound, and settled in the water without mishap to
either machine or operator. It was then towed back to the starting place. On the
second trial it started from the same place and sailed with myself on board
across Long Island Sound. The machine kept on steadily in crossing the wind at a
height of about 200 feet, when it came into my mind to try steering around in a
circle. As soon as I turned the rudder and drove one propeller faster than the
other the machine turned a bend and flew north with the wind at a frightful
speed, but turned steadily around until I saw the starting place in the
distance. I continued to turn but when near the land again, I slowed up the
propellers and sank gently down on an even keel into the water, she readily
floating like a boat. My men then pulled her out of the water, and as the day
was at a close and the weather changing for the worse, I decided to take her
home until Spring.

The length of flight on the first was about two miles,
and on the second about seven miles. The last trial was a circling flight, and
as I successfully returned to my starting place with a machine hithero untried
and heavier than air, I consider the trip quite a success. To my knowledge it is
the first of its kind. This matter has so far never been published.

I
have no photographs taken yet of No. 22 but send you some of No. 21 as these
machines are exactly alike, except the details mentioned. No. 21 has made four
trips, the longest one and a half miles, on August 14, 1901. The wings of both
machines measure 36 feet from tip to tip, and the length of the entire machine
is 32 feet. It will run on the ground 50 miles an hour, and in air travel at
about 70 miles. I believe that if wanted, it would fly 100 miles an hour. The
power carried is considerably more than necessary.

Believing with Maxim
that the future of the air machine lies in an apparatus made without the gas
bag, I have taken up the aeroplane and will stick to it until I have succeeded
completely or expire in the attempt of so doing.

As soon as I get my
machine out this Spring I will let you know. To describe the feeling of flying
is almost impossible, for, in fact, a man is more frightened than anything
else.

Trusting that this will interest your readers, I remain,
Very
truly yours, Gustave Whitehead”

The editor of American Inventor wrote to
Whitehead asking for confirmation, his reply follows:

Editor, American
Inventor
Dear Sir: Yours of the 26th received. Yes it was a full-sized flying
machine and I, myself, flew seven miles and returned to my starting
point.

In both the flights described in my previous letter, I flew in the
machine myself. This, of course, is new to the world at large, but I do not care
much in being advertised except by a good paper like yours. Such accounts may
help others along who are working in the same line. As soon as I can I shall try
again. This coming Spring I will have photographs made of Machine No. 22 in the
air and let you have pictures taken during its flight. If you can come up and
get them yourself, so much the better. I attempted this before, but in the first
trial the weather was bad, some little rain and avery cloudy sky, and the
snapshots that were taken did not come out right. I cannot take any time
exposures of the machine when in flight on account of its high speed.

I
enclose a small sketch showing the course the machine made in her longest
flight, January 17, 1902.

Trusting this will be satisfactory, I remain,


Yours truly, Gustave Whitehead.


Editors Note in
response:

Newspaper readers will remember several accounts of Mr.
Whitehead’s performances last summer. Probably most people put them down as
fakes, but it seems as though the long-sought answer to the most difficult
problem Nature ever put to man is gradually coming in sight. The Editor and the
readers of the columns await with interest the promised photographs of the
machine in the air. The similarity of this machine to Langley’s experimental
flying machine is well shown in the accompanying illustration, reprinted from a
previous issue. Mr. Langley, it will be remembered, was the first to demonstrate
the possibility of mechanical flight.