[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 20 (Tuesday, February 24, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E194]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    UNCLE ARTHUR AND ORVILLE WRIGHT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. ROB SIMMONS

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 24, 2004

  Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, earlier this month the media reported that 
Rover and Opportunity were exploring the Martian surface. Mars is about 
35 million miles from Earth, yet man can reach that alien world.
  On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, an equally awe-
inspiring event took place. It was there that Wilbur and Orville Wright 
gave birth to man's ability to fly by successfully testing the first 
powered, heavier-than-aircraft that achieved sustained flight with a 
pilot aboard. The first flight was only 120 feet, far less than the 
distance to Mars, but that single event defined the 20th Century.
  In the December 2003 issue of Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association 
Magazine, I learned, through an article written by my brother, Tom 
Simmons, that our family has a connection to the Wright Brothers. Our 
Great Uncle Arthur Ruhl was one of only six journalists in May 1908 to 
watch the Wright Brothers work with their aircraft at Kitty Hawk. An 
article about what Uncle Arthur saw appeared in Colliers magazine on 
May 30, 1908. But this story doesn't end with Uncle Arthur's article. 
He sent a copy of his story to the Wright Brothers and Orville sent 
back a warm reply. Emboldened by the inventor's response, and his own 
curiosity, Uncle Arthur wrote back and asked if he could take a flight. 
Orville responded that they had so many requests they were limiting 
their passengers to Army officials.
  Undaunted, Uncle Arthur continued his correspondence with Orville 
Wright. By 1910 the Wright Brothers were exhibiting their aircraft 
because the public was paying to watch the flights. Who should be 
covering one of the exhibitions for Colliers Weekly but Uncle Arthur. 
He was watching Orville Wright train one of his students when the 
inventor extended the long sought invitation.
  Uncle Arthur found the adventure exhilarating. He wrote, ``It was now 
that we seemed, indeed, to be going like the wind--a wonderful 
sensation, like nothing else, so near to the earth, yet spurning it.''
  I fly between Washington and my home in Connecticut just about every 
weekend. Today air travel does not inspire the awe described by Uncle 
Arthur. But it is an amazing thing--the ability to fly thousands of 
miles around the world in a matter of hours, or to set foot on a planet 
that our ancestors looked at every night with amazement and wonder. I 
can now look at flight through the eyes of my Uncle Arthur; and I will 
probably never look at the trip between Washington and Connecticut so 
casually ever again.

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