Having acquired some skill in sailing, Mr. Pilcher began work on a power machine. This was to be propelled by a screw actuated by an oil engine, and was to be mounted on wheels backed by stiff springs. Having observed his speed of descent in gliding, he computed that two tow-line horse power would float him and his machine, weighing together 220 pounds. A like result was obtained when he was flown as a kite. He was, therefore, on the straight road to achieving human flight on a screw-propelled, wheel-mounted monoplane. If he had been more cautious he might have been the first person to achieve human flight in a practicable type of dynamic machine; for he seems to have equaled, if not excelled, his German master in aëroplane design. But like the master he provided inadequately for the structural strength of his glider, and braved too far the dangers of gusty weather. One stormy day, September 30, 1899, wishing to please several persons who had come a long distance to see him, he made two trial flights in a gentleman’s park near Rugby. The second of these proved fatal. The spectators heard a cracking noise, saw the tail break, and the whole craft plunge headlong to the ground. Poor Pilcher was mortally hurt and died thirty-four hours later, without ever regaining consciousness. He was then in his thirty-third year. Had this talented young Briton and his German tutor both lived, there would doubtless have been a pleasant race and rivalry between them; for the pupil was forming opinions and plans sufficiently divergent from those of his master and friend. He did not approve Lilienthal’s high wings and low center of gravity, nor his V-shape for lateral equilibrium, nor his flapping wing tips for propulsion, nor his method of launching the dynamic machine. Fortunately both published their ideas and experiments, leaving to their successors the task of judging the merits of their designs, and of adding any improvements that might still be required in order to achieve final success.