The small band of men who organized the first international aviation meet, with the Marquis de Polignac as president, and the great wine merchants of the Champagne district as their supporters, were now elated and triumphant. They had undertaken a novel and costly sporting enterprise, regarded by many as hazardous, or rash, even though sanctioned by the Aëro Club of France. For an enormous attendance would be required to meet the expense of preparations and prize money. It was doubtful whether the few available aviators could draw large crowds to Betheny for a week, even in ideal weather, and there was risk of sending the critical populace away displeased if abundant flights were not made. The whole event might prove a painful fiasco, if rains and high winds should predominate; for were not aviators notoriously reluctant to fly in rough weather? Vain apprehensions, ignoring the reckless and intrepid daring of the Gallic sportsmen! Nothing short of a week’s continual tempest could have kept them down. The great tournament was a triumph, not only to the courageous promoters, but also to the aviators, the manufacturers, the whole of mankind. It astonished both actors and spectators. It marked a new epoch in the art of aëroplaning. It inaugurated a magical and wholly novel kind of recreation and public amusement that should be demanded at once in all civilized countries. It eradicated, in a measure, the inveterate notion that the aëroplane is essentially a fair-weather machine. With a cheap instrument capable of flying scores of miles in rain and wind, what applications might not come, of the greatest import to the world? The fashion set at Rheims was imitated in other cities. Before the close of the year 1909, aviation meets were scheduled for Brescia in Italy, Berlin, Juvisy, near Paris, Blackpool and Doncaster, England. The succeeding year was to have more such events than the really capable aviators could attend. In both hemispheres, sums in cash, equaling or exceeding those at Rheims, would be offered by many prominent communities, eager to witness such novel and thrilling entertainment as only dexterous aviators could furnish. But it would be learned also that considerable financial risk attends an aviation meet, unless good judgment mark the choice of site, season, pilots and the executive agencies. Several of the meets following the one at Rheims succeeded neither in defraying expenses nor in furnishing competent aviators to repay the trouble of holding the tournament. The meets held in England were practically failures. A most interesting flight, however, was performed by Latham in a wind of 25 to 35 miles an hour. This itself was a very impressive achievement. The Brescia meeting was remarkable for the turbulence of its aërial currents and for Rougier’s record high flight of 645 feet.