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MILLING, T. DEWITT, BRIG. GEN. USAF. - BIOG. FILE - FOLDER NO.2 ITEM NO.5A 

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION NATIONAL AIR MUSEUM

DRAFT

To test the weight stipulation, pieces of metal were secured on the [[strikethrough]]xxxxxx[[/strikethrough]]center section to make up the required 450 pounds. The required height, a [[strikethrough]]xxxx[[/strikethrough]]climb of 200 feet per minute was difficult to obtain. Although it seemed to have been successfully accomplished in trial flights. 

On June 11, late in the afternoon, Welch gave notice he would attempt to conduct the speed test. I owned a small car and had started back to Washington carrying Lieut Hazelhurst with me. When we arrived at the gate we looked over and Welch was at the end of the runway waiting for a passenger to take off. No one had appeared. He ran over to the car and asked if we could wait long enough (it would only a few minutes to accomplish the run) to allow Hazelhurst to be his passenger. I, of course, said that I would. He took off and flew over the course, turned around and came back - turned around and lifted it. On the next leg, in which he went up and back xxxx, he made the turn to straighten out again (right near where I was waiting) when he made the turn he was only approximately 50 ft high while banking swerved and crashed into the ground nose first. Both occupants were killed. The machine was so badly broken up it was difficult to tell whether a structural failure was the cause or whether - in making the very sharp turn, he turned the nose up and lost flying speed thus stalling and diving to the ground. I always leaned to this cause. May 30 was a sad Memorial Day for the personnel at College Park. A telegram came from Orville Wright of the news that Wilbur had died of typhoid fever. He had been of great assistance to all of us and was a warm friend. This telegram came as a keen shock. We, who were associated with aviation, felt that the airplane was capable of offensive use if properly armed. Unfortunately, the guns available in our Army were not suitable for mounting on the airplane of the type we were flying. In the first part of June, I. L. Lewis, who had invented famous guns, brought one to College Park and after he tried one on an airplane, naturally, Capt Chandler

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