Page:NYT - Fatal fall of Wright airship - transcription.djvu/11

 weight carried to-day was greater than ever before was carried in a heavier-than-air machine. Lieut. Selfridge weighed close to 180 pounds. This added to the weight of the aviator, the filled tank of fuel, and the engine, made a decided load. Driving this through the air may have been too much of a strain upon the blades, which were set at a less pitch than the old ones. The wires formed a sort of wide-meshed screen before the aviator and his passenger. In climbing into the seat at the start both men had to crawl back of the wires to get in their places. It was these wires that undoubtedly cut and lacerated the faces and bodies of both when the machine fell with them. The machine was a wreck of blood-stained wood, wire, and canvas. The broad stretch of planes was broken and twisted. The framework was shattered, and ends of crosspieces had been driven through the canvas, which was practically in tatters. The force of the shock when the machine struck the earth wrenched the forward planes and the horizontal rudder into a shapeless mass of canvas, wires, and wood. An examination of the broken blade showed that it had been snapped off at a point one-fourth of the distance from the hub. A deep indentation of the broken piece indicated that it had struck some other part of the aeroplane.