402 : The Atlantic 



and other early fliers and many taught themselves by trial and error 

 on machines of their own design. 



By 1909 the Wright brothers began a systematic training of army 

 pilots under a contract with the government. The Wrights, Curtiss, 

 Glenn Martin and others organized companies to produce and sell air- 

 planes and the famous suit between the Wright brothers and Glenn 

 Curtiss was instituted. In this year the first large-scale airplane show 

 was held in Rheims, France and its counterpart, an International 

 Air Meet, was held at Belmont Park on Long Island in the succeed- 

 ing year. 



This was also the year in which Bleriot flew his monoplane across 

 the English Channel from the French coast to a landing in a field 

 above Dover. It took him thirty-seven and a half minutes and in this 

 time he not only won a prize of $25,000 but also made the first over- 

 water flight across any part of the Atlantic Ocean in a heavier-than- 

 air machine. 



1910 was the year for money prizes and cross-country flights. Pau- 

 Ihan, competing against Claude Graham-White, made a flight from 

 London to Manchester, a distance of 183 miles, and won a London- 

 Daily Mail prize of $50,000. In America Glenn Curtiss won $10,000 by 

 flying from Albany to New York City and Charles K. Hamilton 

 won a similar amount by flying from New York to Philadelphia 

 and returning within a twenty-four-hour period. 



1910 was also the year in which an American named Walter Well- 

 man made a serious attempt to fly the Atlantic Ocean. For this pur- 

 pose he had built a dirigible which he christened America. This 

 machine was driven by gasoline motor. Wellman knew that his air- 

 ship could not lift into the air a sufficient load of gasoline to carry 

 him from the American continent to Europe but he thought he had 

 a plan for overcoming this difficulty. In addition to having the usual 

 gas tank carried in the car of the machine, he expected to take along 

 a supply in a sort of tail or drag rope which he intended to tow 

 behind the dirigible. Ropes, traiHng from the after part of the dirigi- 

 ble car, had gasoline containers attached to them at intervals. 



At the start of the flight, most of these containers would be float- 

 ing on the sea, trailing behind the ship. As gasoline was used up, the 

 rope would be drawn up into the car, the gasoline transferred from 

 the drums into the tank and the drums abandoned at sea. It was a 

 logical plan on paper; in practice, it nearly wrecked the ship and cost 

 Wellman his life. The trailing drums were a terrific drag on the 

 machine and in addition, when the sea was at all rough, the tail 



