The prize money won during 1911 exceeded $1,000,000, but
owing to the increased number of aviators the individual
winnings were not as large as in 1910.
It is estimated that within the past twelve months more
than 300,000 miles have been covered in aeroplane flights
and more than seven thousand persons, classed either as
aviators or passengers, taken up into the air. The aeroplane
of today ranges through monoplane, biplane, triplane and
even quadraplane, and more than two hundred types of these
machines are in use.
Aeroplanes are becoming a factor of international commerce.
The records of the Bureau of Statistics show that
more than $50,000 worth of aeroplanes were imported into,
and exported from, the United States in the months of July,
August and September, 1911. The Bureau of Statistics only
began the maintenance of a separate record of this comparatively
new article of commerce with the opening of the fiscal
year 1911-12.
Two of the prominent developments of 1911 were the
introduction of the hydro-aeroplane and the motorless glider
experiments of the Wright brothers at Killdevil Hills, N. C.,
where during the two weeks' experiments numerous flights
with and against the wind were made, culminating in the
establishing of a record by Orville Wright on October 25,
1911, when in a 52-mile per hour blow he reached an elevation
of 225 feet and remained in the air 10 minutes and 34
seconds.
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