In 1906 Santos-Dumont flew 700 feet in an aeroplane in one sustained flight and in 1908 the Wrights visited France and gave public demonstration flights at Pau and other places. Their machine was a biplane driven by a small four-cylinder water-cooled engine and two large propellers. These were both actuated by chains gearing on the engine-shaft, one chain being crossed so as to make its propeller revolve in the direction opposite to the other, thus giving proper balance to the driving force. Alongside the engine and slightly in front of it was the pilot’s seat, and there was also a seat for a passenger in between, exactly in the centre, so that the added weight would not alter the balance. Unlike present-day aeroplanes, this machine had no horizontal tail behind the main planes, and so it was called the “tail-first” type, or “Canard” or “duck,” owing to its long projection forward which resembled the neck of that bird. This type did not steer easily and was abandoned. THE 1908 WRIGHT PLANE The Wright machine had vertical rudders aft, and relied on the two big elevator planes forward for its up and down steering. Its lateral, or rolling, movements were controlled by warping or twisting the wings so that while the angle of the wings on one side was increased and gave more lift, the angle on the other side decreased and gave less lift, thus enabling the pilot to right the machine. The elevators were controlled by means of a lever on the left-hand side of the pilot, the warp by a lever on his right, while by waggling the jointed top of the right-hand lever he also controlled the rudder. This complicated system of control was very difficult to master. In 1910 the Wrights attached a horizontal tail at right angles to their rudder, and in 1911 they dropped the front elevators entirely. When the United States entered the war, Orville Wright, as engineer for the Dayton-Wright Company, supervised the building of the famous DH4’s, making several thousands of them for shipment to France. Unlike many machines that followed, the Wright 1908 was launched from a carriage which ran on a rail until the planes were lifted into the air, leaving the carriage on the ground. This same principle was used for launching planes from battleships, although it is now abandoned. Meanwhile Charles and Gabriel Voisin had successfully developed their machine. On March 21, 1909, Mr. Farman flew a little over a mile at Issy, near Paris, successfully turning, and on May 30 Leon Delagrange covered eight miles at Rome, and finally on September 21 he flew forty-one miles without stopping at Issy.