180 STORY OF EXPERIMENTS IN MECHANICAL FLIGHT. 



distauce from tip to tip of the supporting surfaces was, as I observed, 

 about 12 or 14 feet. The method of propulsion was by aerial screw 

 l)ropellers, and there was no gas or other aid for lifting it in the air 

 except its own internal energy. 



"On the occasion referred to, the aerodrome, at a given signal, 

 started from a platform about 20 feet above the water, and rose at first 

 directly in the face of the wind, moving at all times with remarkable 

 steadiness, and subsequently swinging around in large curves of, per- 

 haps, a hundred yards in diameter, and continually ascending until its 

 steam was exhausted, when, at a lapse of about a minute and a half, 

 and at a height which I judged to be between 80 and 100 feet in the 

 air, the wheels ceased turning, and the machine, deprived of the aid of 

 its propellers, to my surprise did not fall, but settled down so softly 

 and gently that it touched the water without the least shock, and was 

 in fact immediately ready for another trial. 



"In the second trial, which followed directly, it repeated in nearly 

 every respect the actions of the first, except that the direction of its 

 course was different. It ascended again in the face of the wind, after- 

 wards moving steadily and continually in large curves accompanied 

 with a rising motion and a lateral advance. Its motion was, in fact, 

 so steady, that I think a glass of water on its surface would have 

 remained unspilled. When the steam gave out again, it repeated for a 

 second time the experience of the first trial when the steam had ceased, 

 and settled gently and easily down. What height it reached at this 

 trial I can not say, as I was not so favorably placed as in the first; but 

 I had occasion to notice that this time its course took it over a wooded 

 promontory, and I was relieved of some apprehension in seeing that it 

 was already so high as to pass the tree tops by 20 or 30 feet. It reached 

 the water one minute and thirty-one seconds from the time it started, 

 at a measured distance of over 900 feet from the point at which it rose. 



"This, however, was by no means the length of its flight. I esti- 

 mated from the diameter of the curve described, from the number of 

 turns of the propellers as given by the automatic counter, after due 

 allowance for slip, and from other measures, that the actual length of 

 flight on each occasion was slightly over 3,000 feet. It is at least safe 

 to say that each exceeded half an English mile. 



"From the time and distance it will be noticed that the velocity was 

 between 20 and 25 miles an hour, in a course which was taking it con- 

 stantly 'up hill.' I maj^ add that on a previous occasion I have seen a 

 far higher velocity attained by the same aerodrome when its course 

 was horizontal. 



"I have no desire to enter into detail further than I have done, but I 

 can not but add that it seems to me that no one who was present on 

 this interesting occasion could have failed to recognize that the practi- 

 cability of mechanical flight had been demonstrated. 



"Alexander Graham Bell." 



Not long after the May experiments Dr. Langley went abroad for 

 needed rest and recreation, and in the autumn, after his return, further 

 experiments were tried. On the 28th of November a flight was made 

 which was more than three-quarters of a mile in length, the time occu- 

 pied being precisely one minute and three-quarters. Mr. Frank G-. 

 Carpenter was a fortunate witness of this, the longest flight ever made, 

 and with Dr. Langley's approval he wrote a detailed account of it for 

 the Washington Star of December 12, 1896. His article is interesting 

 from beginning to end. 



