sound, that full plans
were published for the benefit of any experimenters who might wish to
improve on this apparatus. The American Aeronautical Annual for 1897
contains these plans; Chanute confessed that some movement on the part
of the operator was still required to control the machine, but it was
only a seventh or a sixth part of the movement required for control of
the Lilienthal type.

Chanute waxed enthusiastic over the possibilities of gliding, concerning
which he remarks that 'There is no more delightful sensation than that
of gliding through the air. All the faculties are on the alert, and
the motion is astonishingly smooth and elastic. The machine responds
instantly to the slightest movement of the operator; the air rushes by
one's ears; the trees and bushes flit away underneath, and the landing
comes all too quickly. Skating, sliding, and bicycling are not to be
compared for a moment to aerial conveyance, in which, perhaps, zest is
added by the spice of danger. For it must be distinctly understood that
there is constant danger in such preliminary experiments. When this
hazard has been eliminated by further evolution, gliding will become a
most popular sport.'

Later experiments proved that the biplane type of glider gave better
results than the rather cumbrous model consisting of five tiers of
planes. Longer and more numerous glides, to the number of seven to eight
hundred, were obtained, the rate of descent being about one in six. The
longest distance traversed was about 120 yards, but Chanute had dreams
of starting from a hill about 200 feet high, which would have given him
gliding flights of 1,200 feet. He remarked that 'In consequence of
the speed gained by running, the initial stage of the flight is nearly
horizontal, and it is thrilling to see the operator pass from thirty to
forty feet overhead, steering his machine, undulating his course, and
struggling with the wind-gusts which whistle through the guy wires. The
automatic mechanism restores the angle of advance when compromised by
variations of the breeze; but when these come from one side and tilt the
apparatus, the weight has to be shifted to right the machine... these
gusts sometimes raise the machine from ten to twenty feet vertically,
and sometimes they strike the apparatus from above, causing it to
descend suddenly. When sailing near the ground, these vicissitudes can
be counteracted by movements of the body from three to four inches; but
t