the Voisin type fairly closely, but making alterations in the controls,
and in the design of the undercarriage, which was somewhat elaborated,
even to the inclusion of shock absorbers. The seven-cylinder 50
horse-power Gnome rotary engine was fitted to the Farman machine--the
Voisins had fitted an eight-cylinder Antoinette, giving 50 horse-power
at 1,100 revolutions per minute, with direct drive to the propeller.
Farman reduced the weight of the machine from the 1,450 lbs. of the
Voisins to some 1,010 lbs. or thereabouts, and the supporting area to
450 square feet. This machine won its chief fame with Paulhan as pilot
in the famous London to Manchester flight--it is to be remarked, too,
that Farman himself was the first man in Europe to accomplish a flight
of a mile.

Other notable designs of these early days were the 'R.E.P.', Esnault
Pelterie's machine, and the Curtiss-Herring biplane. Of these Esnault
Pelterie's was a monoplane, designed in that form since Esnault Pelterie
had found by experiment that the wire used in bracing offers far more
resistance to the air than its dimensions would seem to warrant. He
built the wings of sufficient strength to stand the strain of flight
without bracing wires, and dependent only for their support on the
points of attachment to the body of the machine; for the rest, it
carried its propeller in front of the planes, and both horizontal and
vertical rudders at the stern--a distinct departure from the Wright
and similar types. One wheel only was fixed under the body where the
undercarriage exists on a normal design, but light wheels were fixed,
one at the extremity of each wing, and there was also a wheel under the
tail portion of the machine. A single lever actuated all the controls
for steering. With a supporting surface of 150 square feet the machine
weighed 946 lbs., about 6.4 lbs. per square foot of lifting surface.

The Curtiss biplane, as flown by Glenn Curtiss at the Rheims meeting,
was built with a bamboo framework, stayed by means of very fine
steel-stranded cables. A--then--novel feature of the machine was the
moving of the ailerons by the pilot leaning to one side or the other in
his seat, a light, tubular arm-rest being pressed by his body when he
leaned to one side or the other, and thus operating the movement of the
ailerons employed for tilting the plane when turning. A steering-wheel
fitted immediately in front of the pilot's seat served to operate a rear
steering