PROGRESS IN AVIATION CHANUTE. 147 



times, and on one occasion it undertook a vagabond flight on its own 

 account; its equilibrium was bad, however, and the steam was shut 

 off ; the machine alighted somewhat broken. Mr. Maxim saw clearly 

 that it would be necessary to change the design, and he has never 

 rebuilt that machine. 



Another view of the same machine is shown in plate 1, figure 2. 

 It had a large aeroplane at the top and two propelling screws 17 

 feet 10 inches in diameter, which imparted a speed of 45 miles an 

 hour running over the track, and it was held from rising by wooden 

 rails of 35 feet gauge which engaged outrigger wheels as soon as the 

 machine left the sustaining track. 



Maxim is now said to be building another machine, which it is 

 expected will be completed soon. 



The next experiments "were made in 1896 by Prof. S. P. Langley. 

 After devoting some years to experimenting, he devised a working 

 model which he started from a launching scow. The model machine 

 flew perfectly on the 6th of May, 1896, in the presence of Alexander 

 Graham Bell. This machine, shown in plate 2, flew about three- 

 quarters of a mile, alighted safely in the Potomac River, and was 

 ready to fly again. 



On the 28th of November, with a similar model, Langley made 

 another successful flight, and further launches were privately made 

 subsequently. [For flights of 1899 and 1903 see plate 3.] 



He was then urged by the United States Government to build a 

 full-sized machine, capable of carrying a man, and he spent three 

 or more years in doing so. That man-carrying machine was com- 

 pleted in 1903, and on the 7th of October of that year the launch 

 was attempted. The machine, however, caught a projecting pin 

 of the launching rail and was cast down into the Potomac. The 

 operator, Mr. Manly, was upset, carried down into the river, and 

 came very near drowning. Another effort was made December 8 

 and the same mishap occurred. Part of the launching ways caught 

 the machine, and it never entered upon flight. There is no doubt, 

 however, that if the machine had been properly launched it would 

 have flown. The machine is still in existence. It was broken when 

 alighting, and in picking it up afterwards, but has been repaired. It 

 is most unfortunate that further effort was not then made to launch 

 that machine, and that Langley was so severely criticized in Congress 

 and by the newspapers. He was grievously balked of deserved suc- 

 cess, and he died of apoplexy two years afterward. 



The next attempt to fly with a man-carrying machine was in 

 North Carolina on the 17th of December, 1903, when the Wright 

 brothers effected three successful flights, the first to alight safely in 

 history. The longest flight covered 852 feet and occupied 59 sec- 

 onds, in the face of a 20-mile wind. The weather was so inclement 



