The National Geographic Magazine 



Starting a Flight 



A High Glide 

 The Wright Brothers' Gliding Machine 



down on account of the exhaustion of 

 their fuel supply. They state that the 

 velocity attained was one kilometer per 

 minute, or about thirty-seven miles an 

 hour. The machine has not only sus- 

 tained its own weight in the air during 

 these trials, but has also carried a man 

 and a gasoline engine weighing 240 

 pounds, exerting a force of from 12 to 

 15 horse-power, and in addition an extra 

 load of 50 pounds of pig-iron. The ap- 

 paratus complete, with motor, weighed 

 no less than 925 pounds, while the sup- 



porting surfaces consisted 

 of two superposed aero- 

 planes each measuring six 

 by forty feet ; so that the 

 machine as a whole had a 

 flying weight of nearly two 

 pounds per square foot (1.9 

 pounds). 



Thanks to the efforts of 

 the Wright brothers, the 

 practicability of aerial flight 

 by man is no longer proble- 

 matical. We, can no longer 

 consider as impossible that 

 which has already been ac- 

 complished. America may 

 well feel proud of the fact 

 that the problem has been 

 first solved by citizens of the 

 United States. 



A FEW NOTES OF PROGRESS 



IN THE CONSTRUCTION 



OF AN AERODROME 



For many years past — in 

 fact, from my boyhood — the 

 subject of aerial flight has 

 had a great fascination for 

 me. Before the year 1896 I 

 had made many thousands 

 of still unpublished experi- 

 ments having a bearing 

 upon the subject, and I was 

 therefore much interested in 

 the researches of Professor 

 Langley relating to aerody- 

 namics. We were thrown 

 closely together in Wash- 

 ington, and although we 

 rarely conversed upon aerodynamics we 

 knew that we had a subject of mutual 

 interest and showed the greatest per- 

 sonal confidence in one another. I did 

 not hesitate to show him my experi- 

 ments ; he did not hesitate to show me 

 his. At least as early as 1894 Professor 

 Langley visited me in my Nova Scotia 

 home and witnessed some of my experi- 

 ments ; and in May, 1896, he recipro- 

 cated by inviting me to accompany him 

 to Ouantico, Virginia, and witness a trial 

 of his large-sized model. The sight of 



