In 1910 Wilbur and Orville Wright established a team of aviators to exhibit their flying machine. In June of that year the Wright Exhibition Team made its first appearance at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and then continued to tour around the country. In November an exhibition was held at Overland Park in Denver. Ralph Johnstone was one of the pilots.
Here's the Dayton Daily News account of Johnstone's Nov. 18 flight:
Johnstone took off and after a few circuits of the course to gain height, headed toward the foothills. Still ascending, he swept back in a big circle and as he reached the north end of the enclosure he started his spiral glide.He was then at an altitude of about 800 feet. With his wings tilted at an angle of almost 90 degrees, he swooped down in a narrow circle, the aeroplane seeming to turn almost in its own length.
As he started the second circle the middle strut, which braces the left side of the lower wing, gave way and the wing tips of both upper and lower wings folded up as though they had been hinged.
For a second Johnstone attempted to right the plane by warping the other wing tip. Then horrified spectators saw the plane swerve like a wounded bird and plunge straight toward earth.
Johnstone was thrown from his seat as the nose of the plane swung downward. He caught on one of the wire stays between planes and grasped one of the wooden braces of the upper wing with both hands. Then working with hands and feet, he fought by main strength to warp the planes so that their surfaces might catch the air and check his descent. For a second it seemed that he might succeed, for the helmet he wore blew off and fell much more rapidly than the plane.
The hope was momentary, however, for about 300 feet from the ground the machine turned completely over and the spectators fled wildly as the broken plane, with the aviator still fighting grimly in its mesh of wires and stays, plunged among them with a crash.
I probably wouldn't know about this event except that I work at Overland Park, now only a golf course. Back at the time of the exhibition Overland was also a race track. The walls of the modern clubhouse have pictures of the exhibition and of Johnstone before his flight.
The Wright Exhibition Team was disbanded the following November after only about a year and a half of existence. The Wright brothers found that the team wasn't helping sell planes, which probably had something to do with the fact that three of the ten team members were killed during exhibitions.
[FFT posted a day late!]
Posted by Walter at December 9, 2006 12:11 PM