Of these two tests, the one conducted by Orville Wright at Fort Myer, near Washington, was the most successful at first. After a few brief preliminary trips, he suddenly astonished the world by phenomenal flying. On the morning of September 9, 1908, he made a voyage above the drill ground lasting 57 minutes, 31 seconds, and again in the evening another flight lasting one hour and three minutes, this time before a throng of distinguished spectators. Immediately thereafter he took aboard Lieut. Frank P. Lahm for a flight of six minutes’ duration. These records were improved day by day, and all things seemed propitious for the official tests of speed and endurance. But on September 17th, while sailing with Lieutenant Selfridge at a height of about 75 feet, a blade of the right-hand propeller struck and loosened a stay wire of the rear rudder. Instantly the wire coiled about the blade, snapping it across the middle. Thereupon the machine became difficult to manage, and plunged headlong to earth, throwing the men with their faces on the bare ground, fatally wounding Lieutenant Selfridge, and seriously injuring Mr. Wright. Lieutenant Selfridge did not recover consciousness, and died within three hours, from wounds on the forehead and concussion of the base of the brain. Mr. Wright suffered a fracture of the left thigh and of two ribs on the right side. The aëroplane was badly shattered in its framing, but the engine was practically intact. This accident terminated the tests for the season; but ere long a date was set for their resumption during the following year. PLATE XXVI. [Illustration: WRIGHT BIPLANE OF 1908.] [Illustration: STANDARD WRIGHT BIPLANE OF 1910.] [Illustration: WRIGHT RACING BIPLANE OF 1910.]