development of the modern aeroplane.

CHAPTER XV. A Pioneer in Aviation

Hitherto we have traced the gradual development of the balloon right
from the early days of aeronautics, when the brothers Montgolfier
constructed their hot-air balloon, down to the most modern dirigible.
It is now our purpose, in this and subsequent chapters, to follow the
course of the pioneers of aviation.

It must not be supposed that the invention of the steerable balloon
was greatly in advance of that of the heavier-than-air machine. Indeed,
developments in both the dirigible airship and the aeroplane have taken
place side by side. In some cases men like Santos Dumont have given
earnest attention to both forms of air-craft, and produced practical
results with both. Thus, after the famous Brazilian aeronaut had won
the Deutsch prize for a flight in an air-ship round the Eiffel tower, he
immediately set to work to construct an aeroplane which he subsequently
piloted at Bagatelle and was awarded the first "Deutsch prize" for
aviation.

It is generally agreed that the undoubted inventor of the aeroplane,
practically in the form in which it now appears, was an English
engineer, Sir George Cayley. Just over a hundred years ago this clever
Englishman worked out complete plans for an aeroplane, which in many
vital respects embodied the principal parts of the monoplane as it
exists to-day.

There were wings which were inclined so that they formed a lifting
plane; moreover, the wings were curved, or "cambered", similar to the
wing of a bird, and, as we shall see in a later chapter, this curve is
one of the salient features of the plane of a modern heavier-than-air
machine. Sir George also advocated the screw propeller worked by some
form of "explosion" motor, which at that time had not arrived. Indeed,
if there had been a motor available it is quite possible that England
would have led the way in aviation. But, unfortunately, owing to the
absence of a powerful motor engine, Sir George's ideas could not be
practically carried out till nearly a century later, and then Englishmen
were forestalled by the Wright brothers, of America, as well as by
several French inventors.

The distinguished French writer, Alphonse Berget, in his book, The
Conquest of the Air, pays a striking tribute to our English inventor,
and this, coming from a gentleman who is writing from a French point
of view, makes the praise of great value. In alluding to Sir George,