2. PAULHAN ON VOISIN MACHINE AT RHEIMS.

the biplane, he accepted that design, although he did not like the stiff, horizontal lines, and introduced bird-like transversal curves. Then he added a motor; this was applied to the No. 9 machine, in which he still had these transversal curves in the wings; he had the propeller in front, and instead of twisting the wings he used fins at the rear, which are adjustable. He obtained some very fair results. This machine is shown in plate 13, figure 1. On the 5th of September, 1909, he borrowed a Voisin machine and undertook a trial flight at Boulogne, preliminary to attempting to cross the British Channel, where it is about 40 miles wide, but, in making a turn, his machine tipped over unduly to the left. He undertook to alight, but in doing so his left wing struck a lump of earth, or hummock, when the wheels rolled into a ditch, the machine turned turtle, and poor Ferber was killed, to the profound sorrow of all interested in aviation. He is the third victim thus far this year,1 but the wonder all along has been that so few accidents have occurred. There have been thousands of flights made for instance, 1,300 were made in one week at the Rheims tournament-but thus far only three deaths have occurred.

More people kept coming into the field, and among the later ones is Mr. Hubert Latham, with a monoplane called the "Antoinette." Mr. Latham has risen to sudden prominence by some daring feats. Mr. Levavasseur designed and built this monoplane and engaged Mr. Latham to operate his machine. With it Mr. Latham got some very fine flights, such as that shown in plate 13, figure 2, taken at Rheims. On the 6th of June, 1909, he went across the country 10 miles from Juvisy. On the 19th of July he attempted to cross the British Channel. but was unsuccessful. On the 27th of July he tried it again, and flew 20 miles, or within 1 mile of Dover; the motor then gave out and he fell into the sea, the rescue being shown in plate 14, figure 1. On the 26th of August, at the meeting at Rheims, he flew 96 miles in 2 hours and 18 minutes, and won the second prize for distance. On that occasion he rose 508 feet, a record which has since been beaten by Paulhan and Rougier, who have developed an extraordinary aptitude for high flights. On his first attempt, on the 10th of July, 1909, Paulhan was able to fly 1.25 miles. On the 19th of July he flew 12 miles across country; on the 7th of August, 23 miles; on the 24th of August, 18 miles on a Voisin machine, and on the 25th of August he flew 81 miles at Rheims, winning third prize for distance. He has since made very fine flights in various meets. Plate 14, figure 2, is from a photograph taken at Juvisy.

The next man to reach prominence is Mr. Sommer. On the 4th of August, 1909, he flew 2 hours; on the 27th of August, 37 miles at Rheims; on the 10th of September, 18 miles over troops in review;

1 Since then Aviator Fernandez was killed at Nice, Dec. 6, by a fall in his aeroplane.

on the 11th of September, 24 miles, from Nancy to Lenoncourt. Plate 15, figure 1, shows a flight in company with Farman.

E. Lefebvre, an automobile dealer, having purchased a Wright machine, laid down lines of rails and taught himself how to operate and fly the machine. At Rheims he made some very good performOn the 27th of August he flew 12.5 miles in 20 minutes and 47 seconds. Unfortunately, upon the 7th of September, when testing a new Wright machine, he was upset and killed, this being the first fatal accident to occur in 1909.

ances.

One of the last men to come into prominence in France has been Mr. Henri Rougier, who operates a Voisin machine (pl. 15, fig. 2), and who has made some remarkable high flights. At Brescia he reached 328 feet of altitude, and later, on another occasion, 650 feet of altitude was reached. At Berlin he won the first prize for distance. On the 18th of October, at Blackpool meeting in England, he made a flight of 18 miles in 25 minutes, but all of those performances in height fall far short of the performances of Orville Wright, who rose to a height of 1,600 feet.

By the contract in which the Wright brothers agreed to sell their French patents to a syndicate, Mr. Wilbur Wright was to teach three pupils to operate the machines. The men selected were the Count de Lambert, Mr. Paul Tissandier, and Capt. Lucas-Girardville. The latter, being an army officer, has not appeared in any public tournament, but Mr. Tissandier has made many good flights, the longest up to the present time being one of 69 miles at Rheims, and he has been training pupils of his own. Count de Lambert made a flight of 72 miles at Rheims, and day before yesterday (Oct. 18) he made a sensational journey from the aviation grounds at Juvisy, where plate 16, figure 1, shows one of his flights over a portion of Paris to the Eiffel Tower and back, some 30 miles. This feat, as well as the flight of Latham on September 27 over the suburbs of Berlin, is disfavored by the Wrights as involving undue risks of accident.

Wilbur Wright also taught two pupils in Italy (where he sold a machine)-Lieut. Calderara, who flew at Rome and at Brescia, winning some prizes and meeting with accidents, and Lieut. Savoya, whose performances have not been made known.

Mr. Legagneux and Mr. Bunau-Varilla also made creditable flights at Rheims upon machines built by Voisin Bros. (pl. 16, fig. 2), but the performances most commented upon at that tournament were those of Mr. Glen Curtiss, who, with a machine built by himself, won the Gordon Bennett cup by making the shortest time over 20 kilometers; won the first prize for speed in a flight of 30 kilometers (46 miles an hour), and the second prize for speed over 10 kilometers, in which he flew at 48 miles per hour. Plate 17 shows these