Another First Flight
By two Wilming'toiiians who, in 1910 on
Shell Island, emulated the Wright Broth¬
ers’ feat.
Practically everyone knows of the
first successful airplane flight of Or¬
ville and Wilbur Wright from the sands
of Kill Devil Hill, four miles south of
Kitty Hawk, N, C, on December 17,
1903. But very few’ people are aware
that seven years later an airplane was
built and flown from the sands of a
beach in southeastern North Carolina.
In the month of January, 1910, the
natives of Wrights ville Sound began
to notice an unusual amount of ac¬
tivity, for that time of year, on the
island beaches near their homes. But
they could only guess at what was
going on.
Worked Secretly
Had they known, two inventors were
at work there, aiming for fame and
fortune. Their plans had been on the
drawing board for months, and now
the actual construction of a working
example of their theories was in prog¬
ress. They had agreed to keep their
project a secret until the invention had
proved itself. For this reason, an out-
of-the-way location was selected for
their experiments.
Their secret was well kept for a
time. Then, even in Wilmington, gos¬
sip of “something going on across the
sound” began to make the rounds;
and interest in the matter mounted to
a state of widespread excitement un¬
til finally the news was out. having
reached Wilmington indirectly, by re¬
ports in out-of-town newspapers:
On Shell Island (or Moores’ Beach,
as it was sometimes called) the beach
north of Wrightsville Beach, two
prominent Wilmington business men,
Messrs. M, F. H. Gouverneur, vice-
president of the Tide Water Power
Company, and H. M. Chase, man¬
ager of the American Chemical & Tex¬
tile Coloring Company, were building
a flying machine!
“It will be something like the
Wrights’ as to the general plan,” the
newspapers stated, “but very different
in many respects. For more than six
months the inventors have been at
work on the flyer and it is now prac¬
tically completed. The initial flight is
THE STATE, August 15, 196B
By LEWIS PHILIP HALL
to be made July 4 at Wrightsville
Beach.”
New Type Plane
In those infant days of aviation the
news was as startling as news of an
American space ship landing on the
moon would be today.
On a later date the owners said the
airplane was their own design; and
they had been assisted in the con¬
struction by Mr. John L. Grafflin, a
machinist, and also a Mr. Ilodges, an
expert woodworker. It was built al¬
most entirely of aluminum and weighed
1,200 pounds. The plane was sixteen
feet wide and thirty feet long, and was
equipped with an engine capable of
developing 250 horsepower. The en¬
gine alone cost $4,000 and the entire
construction of the airplane exceeded
$6,000, It was an entirely new type
from any of the airplanes that had
been previously built.
One man who saw the plane said:
‘T have never beheld a more perfect
piece of work, and the lightness, when
the size is taken into consideration, is
almost unbelievable.”
A Wilmington newspaper of June
16, 1910, announced: “Mr. H. M.
Chase will be at the helm when the
airship makes its initial flight on July
4th, and the route will be along the
Sound side of Wrightsville Beach from
Moores’ Beach, which is north of
Wrightsville, to the southern end of
Wrigli Is ville Beach.”
Disappointed Crowd
On July 4, 1910 Wrightsville Beach
was host to a record breaking crowd
of over 5,000 people who came, not
only to enjoy the beach, but to wit¬
ness the flight of the Gouvcrneur-
Chase airplane. They were disap¬
pointed, however, for the flight did
not take place that day, and the news¬
paper gave no reason as to what caused
the cancellation.
This incident was the talk of the
(Continued on page 14)
The plone built ond flown on Shell Island by M. F. H. Gouverneur and H. M, Chase wos "something
like the Wrights' as to general plan," but in some respects was an entirely new type. The illustration
shows an exact reproduction of the Wright Brothers' famed plane, now on disploy ot the Nationol
Memorial at Kill Devil Hills. — (Aycock Brown photo.l
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