ries pilot and passenger, the
former can take it to a suitable altitude and then set and lock his
controls, and afterwards devote his time, in common with that of his
passenger, to the making of observations or the writing of notes. The
machine meanwhile flies itself, adapting itself automatically to all
the differences of wind pressure which, if it had not this natural
stability, would need a constant action of the pilot to overcome. All
he need do is to maintain it on its course by an occasional movement
of the rudder. With such a machine, even on a day when there is a
rough and gusty wind, it is possible for an airman to fly for hours
without fatigue; whereas with a machine which is not automatically
stable, and needs a ceaseless operation of its controls, the physical
exhaustion of a pilot, after hours of flight, is very severe.

So, already, one sees these factors of safety emerge and take their
place. There is no longer a grave peril of machines breaking in the
air; there need be no longer, with duplicate power-plants, the
constant risk of engine failing; while that implacable and treacherous
foe, the wind, is being robbed daily of its perils.

CHAPTER IX

A STUDY OF THE METHODS OF GREAT PILOTS

The masters of flying, and this is a fact the novice should ponder
well, have been conspicuous almost invariably for their prudence. No
matter how great has been their personal skill, they have never lost
their respect for the air; and this is why so many of the great flyers,
after running the heaviest of risks in their pioneer work, have
managed to escape with their lives. What patience and sound judgment
can accomplish, when pitted even against such dangers as must be faced
by an experimenter when he seeks to fly, is shown by an incident from
the early career of the Wright brothers. With one of their gliders, a
necessarily frail machine, and in tests made when they were both
complete novices, they managed to make nearly 1000 glides; and not
once in all those flights, during which they were learning the
rudiments of balance and control, did they have a mishap which damaged
at all seriously their machine.

These two brothers, Wilbur and Orville, offer to the student of flying,
apart from the historical interest which is attached to their work, a
temperamental study of the greatest interest. Wilbur, who was grave,
judicial--a man of infinite patience and with an exceptional power of
lucid thinking--found in hi