THE TRIUMPH OF THE AEROPLANE 



delay of several hours, but the aviator was enabled 

 to re-ascend at 6:17 and to land at Governor's Island 

 at 6:40, the return journey having been accomplished 

 at an average hourly speed of 51.36 miles. 



The machine used by Mr. Hamilton is a Curtiss 

 bi-plane, which in most respects follows closely the 

 model of the original Wright aeroplane, but in which the 

 function of the warping wings is fulfilled by two small 

 wings, or ailerons, adjusted at each side between the 

 larger planes. These ailerons, being deflected in 

 opposite directions simultaneously, meet any tendency 

 of the machine to tip unduly. Whether or not this 

 method of maintaining lateral stability is the same 

 in principle as the Wright method of warping the large 

 planes themselves, is a question at issue between the 

 inventors. From the purely scientific standpoint it 

 would seem that one method is merely a modification of 

 the other, which, however ingenious in its application, 

 introduces no new principle. 



On the same day on which Mr. Hamilton's inter- 

 urban flight took place, a new record for altitude was 

 made at Indianapolis by Mr. W. H. Brookins, a pupil 

 of the Wrights, who rose in the Wright bi-plane to a 

 height of 4,384 feet. The height was calculated by 

 President Lambert of the St. Louis Aero Club, with 

 the aid of a sextant. Earlier in the same day Mr. 

 Brookins had risen about 2,000 feet. It becomes in- 

 creasingly difficult for an aeroplane to rise to great 

 heights owing to rarefaction of the upper atmosphere, 

 but the flights of PauUian and Brookins, as well as 

 various unmeasured altitudes attained in cross-country 



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