Eyewitness to Octave Chanute’s Aviation Experiments

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I realized then I was in for a little extra money-and could use it. When I reported to my city editor, he reminded me that Mr. Medill always was adamant about accepting favors, even insisting on his dramatic critics buying tickets to shows so as not to be under obligations. The best thing to do, he advised, was turn in my expense account for a modest $5 per diem and stick it in my pocket.

The late day train took me back to the city after a lovely vacation at double pay. Mindful that my friends on the other papers would be at the station to ask what had happened in the north wind and wishing to have a scoop because I had been sent there for that purpose, I got off at Englewood station and went into town on the elevated. I did feel a little corny at letting the boys down that way. I would have preferred to be a good fellow and share my story, but loyalty to my paper took precedence.

I reached my office without meeting up with a dune mate and wrote my story in a back room, fearing someone might call me by phone or drop into the local office to ask about it. The story of the launching of the skyboat Albatross and the tragic disappointment of its skipper at not being allowed to kill himself to prove it would fly were told at length and made first page.

I did not know then, of course, that my newspaper reports of the Octave Chanute experiments in the Indiana sand dunes reflected anything more than current news and one day would be looked upon as of epochal importance. Seven years later, Orville and Wilbur Wright flew the first glider that was powered with a motor in the Kitty Hawk sand dunes and freely acknowledged that the scientific data obtained from Octave Chanute’s experiments with motorless gliders had been basic and indispensable to their air triumph.

Mr. Chanute became known in scientific circles as the father of aviation. In World War II, the United States government paid a belated, deserved tribute to the first birdman by naming its aeronautical station in Illinois the Chanute Flying Field.

This article originally appeared in the September 1997 issue of Aviation History and was written by Henry S. Bunting, now deceased, who was a reporter for the Chicago Tribune at the turn of the century. Further reading: Progress in Flying Machines, by Octave Chanute.

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Tags: Aircraft, Aviation History, Flight Technology, Social History

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