CHAPTER XXIX 



EARLY AIRSHIP MAKERS 



Santos Dumont^His Would-be Imitators — Getting financed — Those 

 which refused to fly — Dreams told to me — Cause of Failures 



In Paris I came in touch a great deal with inventors 

 of different kinds of aircraft, some which fiew, others 

 which never got far beyond the sheds in which they 

 were constructed. It was rather pitiable to observe 

 the blind confidence of some of the promoting engineer- 

 ing inventors. Their optimism about their own 

 theories was sublime. It was no use suggesting that 

 perhaps they would not realise their hopes, and that 

 a great deal more had to be done before the conquest 

 of the air would be completed. I must confess that 

 at that time I was generally sceptical as to anything 

 attaining the possibilities of the model of to-day. It 

 was so obvious that many of them were destined to 

 failure, and the men who were trying were of the type 

 who never achieve anything. 



The chief examples of those I saw were in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Paris. Journeys by motor car and train, 

 and then long tramps to outlying places, made me 

 occasionally regret that the inventors were not locked 

 up in asylums. Still, I had to go through with it. 

 Santos Dumont attained a good deal, and, of course, 

 he was the single one who did demonstrate something. 

 He was always a great aeronaut and fearless into the 

 bargain. I happened to be at St Cloud one day when 

 Lord Northcliffe was also present. On that day 

 Santos Dumont did fly in the teeth of the wind, and the 



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