to this cause.

With their first power-driven machine the Wrights made a series of very
fine flights, at first in a straight line. In 1904 they effected their
first turn. By the following year they had made such rapid progress that
they were able to exceed a distance of 20 miles in one flight, and keep
up in the air for over half an hour at a time. Their manager now gave
their experiments great publicity, both in the American and European
Press, and in 1908 the brothers, feeling quite sure of their success,
emerged from a self-imposed obscurity, and astonished the world with
some wonderful flights, both in America and on the French flying ground
at Issy.

A great loss to aviation occurred on 30th May, 1912, when Wilbur
Wright died from an attack of typhoid fever. His work is officially
commemorated in Britain by an annual Premium Lecture, given under the
auspices of the Aeronautical Society.

CHAPTER XXVII. The First Man to Fly in Europe

In November, 1906, nearly the whole civilized world was astonished
to read that a rich young Brazilian aeronaut, residing in France,
had actually succeeded in making a short flight, or, shall we say, an
enormous "hop", in a heavier-than-air machine.

This pioneer of aviation was M. Santos Dumont. For five or six years
before his experiments with the aeroplane he had made a great many
flights in balloons, and also in dirigible balloons. He was the son of
well-to-do parents--his father was a successful coffee planter--and he
had ample means to carry on his costly experiments.

Flying was Santos Dumont's great hobby. Even in boyhood, when far away
in Brazil, he had been keenly interested in the work of Spencer, Green,
and other famous aeronauts, and aeronautics became almost a passion with
him.

Towards the end of the year 1898 he designed a rather novel form of
air-ship. The balloon was shaped like an enormous cigar, some 80 feet
long, and it was inflated with about 6000 cubic feet of hydrogen. The
most curious contrivance, however, was the motor. This was suspended
from the balloon, and was somewhat similar to the small motor used on
a motor-cycle. Santos Dumont sat beside this motor, which worked a
propeller, and this curious craft was guided several times by the
inventor round the Botanical Gardens in Paris.

About two years after these experiments the science of aeronautics
received very valuable aid from M. Deutsch, a member of the French Aero
Club. A prize of about L