it was mechanical, hardly ever inspired.
The study of climatic conditions was definitely begun and aeronautical
meteorology came to being, while another development already noted was
the fitting of wireless telegraphy to heavier-than-air machines, as
instanced in the British War office specification of February, 1914.
These, however, were inevitable; it remained for the War to force
development beyond the inevitable, producing in five years that which
under normal circumstances might easily have occupied fifty--the
aeroplane of to-day; for, as already remarked, there was a deadlock,
and any survey that may be made of the years 1912-1914, no matter how
superficial, must take it into account with a view to retaining correct
perspective in regard to the development of the aeroplane.

There is one story of 1914 that must be included, however briefly,
in any record of aeronautical achievement, since it demonstrates past
question that to Professor Langley really belongs the honour of having
achieved a design which would ensure actual flight, although the series
of accidents which attended his experiments gave to the Wright Brothers
the honour of first leaving the earth and descending without accident in
a power-driven heavier-than-air machine. In March, 1914, Glenn Curtiss
was invited to send a flying boat to Washington for the celebration
of 'Langley Day,' when he remarked, 'I would like to put the Langley
aeroplane itself in the air.' In consequence of this remark, Secretary
Walcot of the Smithsonian Institution authorised Curtiss to re-canvas
the original Langley aeroplane and launch it either under its own power
or with a more recent engine and propeller. Curtiss completed this, and
had the machine ready on the shores of Lake Keuka, Hammondsport, N.Y.,
by May. The main object of these renewed trials was to show whether the
original Langley machine was capable of sustained free flight with a
pilot, and a secondary object was to determine more fully the advantages
of the tandem monoplane type; thus the aeroplane was first flown
as nearly as possible in its original condition, and then with such
modifications as seemed desirable. The only difference made for the
first trials consisted in fitting floats with connecting trusses;
the steel main frame, wings, rudders, engine, and propellers were
substantially as they had been in 1903. The pilot had the same seat
under the main frame and the same general system of control. He cou