SCIENCE AND INVENTION 241 



fore the aeroplane was clear of the ways. The exper- 

 iments were now definitely abandoned, and the in- 

 ventor was overwhelmed by the sense of failure, and 

 still more by the skepticism with which the publio 

 had regarded his endeavors. 



In 1905 an account of Langley's aeroplane ap- 

 peared in the Bulletin of the Italian Aeronautical 

 Society. Two years later this same publication in 

 an article on a new Bldriot aeroplane said : " The 

 Ble*riot IV in the form of a bird . . . does not ap- 

 pear to give good results, perhaps on account of the 

 lack of stability, and Ble*riot, instead of trying some 

 new modification which might remedy such a grave 

 fault, laid it aside and at once began the construc- 

 tion of a new type, No. V, adopting purely and sim- 

 ply the arrangement of the American, Langley, which 

 offers a good stability." In the summer of 1907 

 Ble*riot obtained striking results with this machine, 

 the launching problem having been solved in the 

 previous year the year of Langley's death by 

 the use of wheels which permitted the aeroplane to 

 get under way by running along the ground under 

 its own driving power. The early flights with No. V 

 were made at a few feet from the ground, and the 

 clever French aviator could affect the direction of 

 the machine by slightly shifting his position, and 

 even had skill to bring it down by simply leaning 

 forward. By the use of the steering apparatus he 

 circled to the right or to the left with the grace of 

 a bird on the wing. When, on July 25, 1909, Bldriot 

 crossed the English Channel in his monoplane, all 

 the world knew that man's conquest of the air was a 

 fait accompli. 



