The world’s first successful flight in a man-carrying heavier-than-air machine, made by the Wright brothers two years later at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, only went further to confirm man’s belief that the conquest of the air and the age of aerial navigation were at hand. Since then in a heavier-than-air machine man has climbed to 30,500 feet and has flown 920 miles without stopping. In a free balloon man has drifted 1,503 miles through the air—from Paris to Kharkoff, Russia—and to an altitude of over 38,000 feet. In a rigid dirigible the Germans have transported machinery for making munitions all the way from Austria-Hungary over Bulgaria—while that country was still neutral—to Constantinople, a distance of 500 miles; within a radius of 350 miles of Germany, despite all military and naval opposition on land and sea, the Huns have flown with tons of high explosives and dropped them on London, Paris, and Bucharest. In the last days of the war a super-Zeppelin flew from Jamboli, in Bulgaria, to Khartum, in Egypt, and back, a distance of more than 6,000 miles each way, carrying a crew of twenty-two men and twenty-five tons of medicine and munitions. It was intended to transport the supplies to General Lettow-Vorbeck in German East Africa, but a wireless received when the Zeppelin was over Khartum notified its commander to return, for Lettow-Vorbeck had been captured. On March 22, 1919, the British Government officially announced that the US-11, a non-rigid type of dirigible, had flown 1,285 miles over the North Sea without stopping, the actual flying time being forty and a half hours. The voyage took the form of a circuit, embracing the coast of Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein, Heligoland, North Germany, and Holland. The trip was characterized by extremely unfavorable weather, and therefore is regarded as ranking as perhaps the most notable flight of the kind ever undertaken. The airship started from the Firth of Forth, laying a straight course toward Denmark. There was a northwest wind of fifteen to twenty miles an hour, and the night was dark, but the airship was only a mile from her course when she passed the Dogger Bank Lighthouse. After passing the lighthouse the velocity of the wind increased, and calcium flares were dropped into the sea frequently to determine the location. The airship’s troubles began on the return journey. The wind became stronger and more tempestuous. At midnight one engine became useless and the ship was forced a considerable distance to leeward. The captain contemplated landing in France, but finally decided to hold on in the hope that the wind would abate. The wind abating somewhat, a “land fall” was made at North Forel. At this time the gasoline supply was running low.