holding back
in order to give America the precedence, and on the 21st of September he
flew for more than an hour and a half, covering a distance of over sixty
miles. About three weeks later he fulfilled the conditions of his test
by successive passenger-carrying flights. Encouraged by his example, two
distinguished French pioneers, Henri Farman and Leon Delagrange, soon
began to make long flights on French machines, and from this time
onwards the progress of flying was rapid and immense. A great industry
came into being, and, after a short time, ceased to pay any tribute
whatever to the inventors. Merely to secure recognition of their
priority, it became necessary for the Wrights to bring actions at law
against the infringers of their patents. The tedious and distasteful
business of these law-suits troubled and shortened the days of Wilbur
Wright, who died at Dayton on the 30th of May 1912. In 1913, by
arrangement between the parties, a test action was begun against the
British Government. When the war broke out, and the trial of this action
was still pending, the supporters of the Wrights hastily met, and
offered to forgo all their claims for fifteen thousand pounds, a sum
substantial enough to establish the Wrights' priority, yet merely
nominal as a payment for the benefits conferred. So the matter was
settled. The last thoughts of Wilbur Wright were given, not to financial
profits, but to further developments of the art of flight. He was
constantly meditating on the possibility of soaring flight, which should
take advantage of the wind currents, and maintain the machine in the air
with but little expenditure of power. In a letter written not many days
before he died, and addressed to a German aviator at the Johannisthal
flying camp, he says, 'There must be a method whereby human beings can
remain in the air once they really find themselves aloft.... The birds
can do it. Why shouldn't men?' The coming of the war, with its
peremptory demand for power and yet more power, did much to develop
strong flight, but postponed experiment on this delicate and fascinating
problem.

The name of the Wrights is so much the greatest name in the history of
flying that it is only fair to give their achievements a separate place.
In 1905 they were in possession of a practical flying machine. In 1908
they proved their powers and established their claims in the sight of
the world. During these three years events had not stood still; Euro