go.

It took them a year to learn to turn a corner. During the years 1904
and 1905, they made 154 flights. At last they were ready, in 1909, to
make a test for our government. The United States said it would pay
$25,000 for a machine capable of going forty miles an hour. Every mile
above this speed would be paid for at the rate of $2500 and for every
mile less than this down to the rate of thirty-six miles an hour they
would deduct $2500 from the purchase money. The flight was to be in a
measured course of five miles from Ft. Meyer to Alexandria, Va. It was
not an easy flight, and it was considered to be more difficult than
crossing the English Channel, a feat then engaging the attention of
Europeans.

Orville Wright with one passenger made the flight in fourteen minutes
and forty-two seconds, a rate of speed a little more than forty-two
miles an hour. Army officers then went to him to learn how to manage
the machine, for even then it was believed the greatest use of the
aeroplane would be in war.

When Orville Wright was succeeding in this country, Wilbur Wright went
to France with one of their machines. At first the French people
laughed, made cartoons of him and his machine, even wrote a song about
his effort; but he soon rose above all such petty and silly things.
The French people began to see the progress the Americans were making
and took hold of the new invention more rapidly than any other
nation.

On the same trip, Wilbur Wright visited Italy, Germany, and England,
making many flights and winning a large number of prizes. When he
returned to this country he was overwhelmed with dinners, receptions,
and medals. He made a great flight in New York City, encircling the
Statue of Liberty in the harbor and flying from Governor's Island to
Grant's Tomb and return, a distance of twenty-one miles.

Not long after these successes Wilbur died, and his brother Orville
was left to go on with their plans. Orville still lives in Dayton,
Ohio, and has a large factory given over to building aeroplanes.

Long before the outbreak of the great war he had said warfare could be
carried on extensively in the air, and that we were realizing but a
few of the uses of this new invention. Although he believes air travel
will become quite an everyday happening, he does not expect it to take
the place of the railroad or the steam boat. However, he hopes to see
the government carry the mails by an aerial route, and to go quickly
an