Octave Chanute to Wilbur Wright

Chicago, June 30, 1903

Not hearing from you, I have written to Capt. Ferber that his statement that the flying machine must not be permitted to be completed in America, and that he is building a motor machine, has put a flea in your ear, and that you are thinking.1

I am writing an article for the Revue Generale des Sciences. Should the warping of the wings be mentioned? Somebody may be hurt if it is not.

How much fictive area do you allow for the head resistance of your machine? I figure the real area at 20 sq. ft., and the fictive at 6 sq. ft.

If you have one of your computations of a glide to spare, please send it to me.

Your paper is recommended for publication in the August number of transactions of Engineers, thus giving it precedence over anterior papers.

Is it best to send Langley a copy of my paper for the Aerophile, or let him wait till it comes out in print?

1 Chanute's suggestion (that the Wrights' plans for developing their power machine were somehow affected by the information that Ferber also intended to mount a motor) was entirely without substance. During Wilbur Wright's visit to Chicago for the June 24 lecture, Chanute mentioned to him a letter from Ferber, dated June 3, in which Ferber had angled for an invitation to the Wright 1903 camp at Kitty Hawk, ostensibly to take lessons in gliding. Wilbur said he would have to consult Orville, but he let Chanute know that Ferber's remarks to Archdeacon, reported in La Locomotion, Apr. 11, 1903, cast suspicion on the motives for such a visit. (See n. 4, Chanute to Wilbur Wright, July 28, 1903.) When Wilbur, after returning to Dayton, remained silent on the subject, Chanute wrote Ferber, on June 28, warning him that there was little prospect of an invitation from the Wrights. (See Wilbur Wright to Chanute, Aug. 2, 1903.)

Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, July 2, 1903