THE LANGLEY AEEODROME. 



215 



T WJ18 accoinpanicd by my friend, Mr. Alexander Graham Bell, who 

 not only witnessed the flight, hut took the instantaneous photograph 

 of it which has l)een g-iven. He spoke of it in a conimunication to the 

 Institute of France [and in a similar comnuuiication to Nature, given 

 in full on page 199]. * * * 



On Novem])or 2S I <)l)tainod. with another aerodrome of somewhat 

 similar construction, a rather longer flight, in which it traversed 

 about three-quarters of a mile, and descended with equal safety. In 

 this the speed was greater, oi- about 30 miles an hour. The course of 

 this date is indicated b}' the dotted line in the diagi-am. We may live 

 to see airships a common sight, but habit has not dulled the edge of 

 wonder, and I wish that the reader could have witnessed the actual 

 spectacle. "It looked like a miracle,'' said one who saw it, and the 

 photograph, though taken from the original, conveys but imperfectly 

 the impression giv(Mi by tlio flight itself. 



Diasnim sliowiiiK the (.■uurse of tlio jiorixlromi' in il.s flight ou the 

 Potomac Kiver at Quantico. 



And now, it may be asked, what has been done? This has been 

 done: A ''flying machine," so long a type for ridicule, has really 

 flown; it has demonstrated its practicability in the only satisfactory 

 way— by actually flying— and by doing this again and again under 

 conditions which leave no doubt. 



There is no room here to enter on the consideration of the construc- 

 tion of larger machines, or to otter the reasons for believing that they 

 may be built to remain for days in the air, or to travel at speeds higher 

 than any with which we are familiar. Neither is thei'c room to enter 

 on a consideration of their commercial value, or of those applications 

 which will probably flrst come in the arts of war rather than those of 

 peace; but we may at least see that these may be such as to change the 

 whole conditions of warfare, when each of two opposing hosts will have 

 its every movement known to the other, when no lines of fortiiication 



