st and September, 1911. The Bureau of Statistics
only began the maintenance of a separate record of this comparatively
new article of commerce with the opening of the fiscal year 1911-12.

Two of the prominent developments of 1911 were the introduction of
the hydro-aeroplane and the motorless glider experiments of the
Wright brothers at Killdevil Hills, N. C., where during the two weeks'
experiments numerous flights with and against the wind were made,
culminating in the establishing of a record by Orville Wright on October
25, 1911, when in a 52-mile per hour blow he reached an elevation of 225
feet and remained in the air 10 minutes and 34 seconds. The search
for the secret of automatic stability still continues, and though some
remarkable progress has been made the solution has not yet been reached.

NOTABLE CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHTS OF 1911.

One of the important features of 1911 in aviation was the rapid increase
in the number and distance of cross-country flights made either for the
purpose of exhibition, testing, instruction or pleasure. Flights between
cities in almost every country of the world became common occurrences.
So great was the number that only those of more than ordinary importance
because of speed, distance or duration are recorded. The flights of
Harry N. Atwood from Boston to Washington and from St. Louis to New
York, and C. P. Rodgers from New York to Los Angeles were the most
important events of the kind in this country. The St Louis to New York
flight was a distance by air route, 1,266 miles. Duration of flight, 12
days. Net flying time, 28 hours 53 minutes. Average daily flight, 105.5
miles. Average speed, 43.9 miles per hour.

Transcontinental Flight of Calbraith P. Rodgers.--All world records
for cross-country flying were broken during the New York to Los Angeles
flight of Calbraith P. Rodgers, who left Sheepshead Bay, N. Y., on
Sunday, September 17, 1911, and completed his flight to the Pacific
Coast on Sunday, November 5, at Pasadena, Cal. Rodgers flew a Wright
biplane, and during his long trip the machine was repeatedly repaired,
so great was the strain of the long journey in the air. Rodgers is
estimated to have covered 4,231 miles, although the actual route as
mapped out was but 4,017 miles. Elapsed time to Pasadena, Cal., 49 days;
actual time in the air, 4,924 minutes, equivalent to 3 days 10 hours 4
minutes; average speed approximating 51 miles per hour. Rodgers' longest
flight in one