While M. Bleriot was developing his monoplanes, Henry Farman left the Voisin brothers and began experimenting on his own account. The result of his experiments was first seen at the Great Rheims meeting when his Gnome-engine biplane appeared, and on November 9, 1909, he made a new world record of 145 miles in four hours, eighteen minutes, forty-five seconds! Like the Wrights’, his machine had a front elevator stuck out forward, but the vertical partitions had disappeared from the wings, though retained in the tail. The whole machine was built of wood, so that it was very much lighter than the Voisin. Its most remarkable step forward, however, was the use of balancing flappers, usually called ailerons, fitted into the rear edge of each wing. These ailerons were pulled down on one side to give that side extra lift when the machine tilted down on that side. Thus the ailerons had the same effect as warping the wings, and as it then became unnecessary to twist the wing itself, it became possible to build the whole wing structure as a fixed box-girder structure of wood and wire. This was lighter and stronger than was safe with a warping wing. For this reason aileron control is used on all aeroplanes of to-day. The Farman biplane was fitted with the stick control used by M. Bleriot, the stick working wires fore and aft for the elevator and lateral for the ailerons. A rudder-bar for the feet operated the rudder wires. This was the beginning of the present-day idea of the pusher biplane. In 1911 Farman abandoned the front elevator and used only the elevator control that was used by monoplanes, and he put the pilot and observer out in front of the machine so that the range of vision was entirely uninterrupted. Later this was covered and called a nacelle or nest by the French. Here the machine-gun was mounted in the days of the World War. In 1912 Maurice Farman, a brother of Henry, built a machine independent of his brother. He constructed a deep nacelle, giving greater comfort to the pilot. It had a forward rudder, and because long horns supported the rudder, it was called the mechanical cow. When this front elevator was abolished later, it was known as the “Shorthorn.” This was the prototype of the “gun busses” and early war training-machines in England. In 1913 Henry Farman’s pusher design began to take on its ultimate form. The whole machine was more compact. The nacelle sheltered the pilot better, and the machine did not look as detached from tail and elevator as formerly. The general effect was more workmanlike and less flattened out. This type was ultimately combined with the “Shorthorn” by Maurice Farman into a machine nicknamed the Horace, a combination of Henry and Maurice. In 1917 it was used as a means of training and aerial travel rather than as a fighting-machine. THE 1909 ANTOINETTE MONOPLANE