devoted
the years 1906 and 1907 to business negotiations and to the construction
of new machines, resuming flying experiments in May of 1908 in order to
test the ability of their machine to meet the requirements of a contract
they had made with the United States Government, which required an
aeroplane capable of carrying two men, together with sufficient fuel
supplies for a flight of 125 miles at 40 miles per hour. Practically
similar to the machine used in the experiments of 1905, the contract
aeroplane was fitted with a larger motor, and provision was made for
seating a passenger and also for allowing of the operator assuming a
sitting position, instead of lying prone.

Before leaving the work of the brothers to consider contemporary events,
it may be noted that they claimed--with justice--that they were first to
construct wings adjustable to different angles of incidence on the right
and left side in order to control the balance of an aeroplane; the
first to attain lateral balance by adjusting wing-tips to respectively
different angles of incidence on the right and left sides, and the first
to use a vertical vane in combination with wing-tips, adjustable to
respectively different angles of incidence, in balancing and steering
an aeroplane. They were first, too, to use a movable vertical tail, in
combination with wings adjustable to different angles of incidence, in
controlling the balance and direction of an aeroplane.[*]

[*]Aeronautical Journal, No. 79.

A certain Henry M. Weaver, who went to see the work of the brothers,
writing in a letter which was subsequently read before the Aero Club de
France records that he had a talk in 1905 with the farmer who rented the
field in which the Wrights made their flights.' On October 5th (1905) he
was cutting corn in the next field east, which is higher ground. When
he noticed the aeroplane had started on its flight he remarked to his
helper: "Well, the boys are at it again," and kept on cutting corn, at
the same time keeping an eye on the great white form rushing about its
course. "I just kept on shocking corn," he continued, "until I got down
to the fence, and the durned thing was still going round. I thought it
would never stop."'

He was right. The brothers started it, and it will never stop.

Mr Weaver also notes briefly the construction of the 1905 Wright flier.
'The frame was made of larch wood-from tip to tip of the wings the
dimension was 40 feet. The gasoline m