THE TRIUMPH OF THE AEROPLANE 



experience, he was able to soar farther and farther in his 

 birdlike machine, in one flight sailing a distance of 

 twelve hundred feet. Under certain favorable wind 

 conditions he could sail from a hilltop without the 

 initial run, and at times he actually rose in the air 

 to a point higher than that from which he started. 



As was to be expected in the very nature of the case, 

 Lilienthal found that part of the secret of success lay 

 in maintaining his equilibrium and in acquiring the 

 faculty of doing this instinctively, as a bird does. But 

 he found, like the person learning to ride a bicycle, that 

 this was developed by repeated efiForts. The action of 

 the machine itself was carefully studied, and various 

 changes were made in his apparatus from time to time 

 as experience suggested them. Among other things, 

 feather-like sails, worked by a small motor, were attached 

 to the edge of the wings; and two smaller frames 

 placed one above the other were tried in place of one 

 large frame. And still the operator continued to make 

 successful flights in all kinds of winds, sometimes nar- 

 rowly escaping disaster, but for three years always 

 coming to the ground safely. His confidence increased 

 day by day, and as his remarkable performances 

 multiplied it seemed as if it would only be a matter of 

 time until he would be able to imitate the soaring bird 

 and sail almost as he pleased. 



In writing of his experiences when, a^ it sometimes 

 happened, he found himself practically motionless in 

 the air at a point higher than that from which he 

 started, he says: "I feel very certain that if I leaned a 

 little to one side, and so described a circle, and fur- 



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