ok place on Tuesday, October 12th, in the presence
of the Chairman of the Committee. It had rained a good deal during the
night and the clay track would have offered considerable resistance to
the rolling of the machine; furthermore, a moderate wind was blowing
from the south-west, too strong during the early part of the afternoon
to allow of any trials.

Toward sunset, however, the wind having weakened, M. Ader decided to
make his first trial; the machine was taken out of its hangar, the wings
were mounted and steam raised. M. Ader in his seat had, on each side of
him, one man to the right and one to the left, whose duty was to rectify
the direction of the apparatus in the event that the action of the
rear wheel as a rudder would not be sufficient to hold the machine in a
straight course.

At 5.25 p.m. the machine was started, at first slowly and then at an
increased speed; after 250 or 300 metres, the two men who were being
dragged by the apparatus were exhausted and forced to fall flat on
the ground in order to allow the wings to pass over them, and the
trip around the track was completed, a total of 1,400 metres, without
incident, at a fair speed, which could be estimated to be from 300 to
400 metres per minute. Notwithstanding M. Ader's inexperience, this
being the first time that he had run his apparatus, he followed
approximately the chalk line which marked the centre of the track and he
stopped at the exact point from which he started.

The marks of the wheels on the ground, which was rather soft, did not
show up very much, and it was clear that a part of the weight of the
apparatus had been supported by the wings, though the speed was only
about one-third of what the machine could do had M. Ader used all its
motive power; he was running at a pressure of from 3 to 4 atmospheres,
when he could have used 10 to 12.

This first trial, so fortunately accomplished, was of great importance;
it was the first time that a comparatively heavy vehicle (nearly 400
kg., including the weight of the operator, fuel, and water) had been set
in motion by a tractive apparatus, using the air solely as a propelling
medium. The favourable report turned in by the Committee after the
meeting of October 2nd was found justified by the results demonstrated
on the grounds, and the first problem of aviation, namely, the creation
of efficient motive power, could be considered as solved, since the
propulsion of the apparatus in the air wou