AERIAL LOCOMOTION 413 



machine — the creation of the brothers Orville and Wilbur 

 Wright, of Dayton, Ohio. Indeed we have news from France 

 that a second has just appeared constructed by the same Santos 

 Dumont to whom the world already owes the first practical 

 dirigible balloon. 



The Wright brothers began by repeating the gliding experi- 

 ments of Lilienthal with improved apparatus of the Hargrave 

 type as modified by Chanute. (See Plate XII.) After having 

 made many successful glides through the air without a motor, 

 they followed in the footsteps of Langley and propelled their 

 machine by means of twin screws operated by engine power. 

 They were successful in launching their apparatus into the air, 

 and it flew, carrying one of them with it. Their machine has 

 flown not once simply, but many times, and in the presence of 

 witnesses ; so that there can be no doubt that the first successful 

 flying-machine has at last appeared. Specially successful flights 

 were made on the third and fourth of October 1905, which were 

 referred to by the Wright brothers in a letter to the Editor of 

 L'Aerophile published in that journal, January, 1906. They 

 have-also made a communication upon the subject to the Aero 

 Club of America ; and have received the formal congratulations 

 of that organization upon their success. 



Each of the Wright brothers, in turn, has made numerous 

 flights over their testing field near Dayton, Ohio, sometimes at 

 an elevation of about 80 feet, at other times skimming over the 

 field at a height of about ten feet from the ground. They have 

 been able to circle over the field of operation, and even to 

 describe in the air the figure eight, thus demonstrating their 

 perfect control over their apparatus both in the vertical and hori- 

 zontal directions. They have succeeded in remaining continu- 

 ously in the air for more than half an hour — thirty-eight min- 

 utes in fact — and only came down on account of the exhaustion 

 of their fuel supply. They state that the velocity attained was 

 one kilometer per minute, or about 37 miles an hour. The ma- 

 chine has not only sustained its own weight in the air during 

 these trials, but has also carried a man, and a gasoline engine 

 weighing 240 lbs., exerting a force of from 12 to 15 horse 

 power, and in addition an extra load of 50 lbs. of pig-iron. The 



