e; his discoveries.
His flying machine of 1896. His design of a machine to carry a man;
failure of trials in 1903. Wilbur and Orville Wright; their method of
attacking the problem; practice in equilibrium. The history of their
experiments; difficulties and disappointments. Their perseverance, and
their great discovery--the combination of wing-warping with a movable
rudder. Their glider of 1902--the victory machine. Their perfect
control. Their first power machine. Their flights on December 17, 1903.
The age of the flying machine had come at last.

CHAPTER II. The Aeroplane and the Airship. pp. 67-109

The Wrights improve their machine, and practise it in many flights over
Huffman Prairie. Indifference of the neighbouring farmers; and of
American, French, and British Governments. Wilbur Wright's visit to
France, 1908. Record flights. Struggle to secure patents. Death of
Wilbur Wright.

European pioneers. Ellehammer. German airships and French aeroplanes.
Mr. Haldane's prophecy. French airship experiments. Successful voyage of
_La France_, 1884. German airships of Woelfert and Schwarz. Brutality of
the crowd. Alberto Santos Dumont; his airships. Controversy on the
rotary principle. Santos Dumont's successes. Disasters to the airships
of Severo and Bradsky. Count von Zeppelin. His first airship. Advantages
and disadvantages of the rigid type. Early trials. List of pre-war
Zeppelins. Wrecks and progress. Parseval airships. Schuette-Lanz
airships. French aviation. Captain F. Ferber. The Antoinette engine. The
Voisins. Delagrange, Farman, Bleriot, Esnault-Pelterie. First aeroplane
flight over French soil by Santos Dumont. Diverse experiments. French
improvements. The monoplane. Tractors and pushers. Ailerons. Centralized
control. The wheeled undercarriage. The horizontal tail-plane. Early
French flights. Wilbur Wright at Le Mans. Competitions and prizes.
Bleriot's cross-Channel flight. Grahame-White and Paulhan. Glenn
Curtiss. The _Circuit de l'Est_. Aviation meetings. The Champagne week.
The Gnome engine. Blackpool and Doncaster. Chavez flies across the Alps.
Record-making and record-breaking.

CHAPTER III. Flight in England. pp. 110-45

English aviation late and sporadic. Private adventure and sport as
against continental organization. Prospect of war the cause of the
formation of the Royal Flying Corps. A few pioneers encouraged by the
Government--Mr. Cody, Lieutenant D