The 25 h.p. motor was placed on the lower aëro-surface; this weighed ninety kilogrammes. At the left of the motor were the two seats, side by side, for the aëronaut and his companion. The two wooden propellers at the back of the machine were 2.50 metres in diameter. They revolved at the rate of 450 revolutions per minute. The area of the sustaining surfaces was fifty square metres. The weight of the whole machine (with aviator) was about 450 kilogrammes. Levers under the control of the aviator regulated the various functions of the machine, the flexing of the carrying surfaces, the movements of the horizontal rudders, the vertical rudder, etc. Soon after the experiments at Le Mans had commenced there came the news of the accident to Mr. Orville Wright’s machine in America, in which the latter’s leg was broken and Lieutenant Selfridge was killed. This was a critical moment for aëronautical science. I can myself bear witness to its depressing effect on an illustrious aëronautical assemblage, for I was myself present at Wilbur Wright’s aëroplane shed when the telegram came bearing the sad news. The sacrifice of one life at that moment seemed to counterbalance the advantages gained by the triumph of the brothers Wright. Even Wilbur Wright himself seemed to half repent he had conquered the air! He exclaimed, “It seems all my fault.” It was, indeed, then little thought what the future toll of the air would have to be. Fortunately for aëronautical progress, two days afterwards Wilbur Wright recovered his nerve, and made the convincing flight of 1 hour 31 minutes 25 4-5th seconds. From that day onwards there has been an increasing flow of progress in the mastery of the air. CHAPTER VII TYPES OF AËROPLANES France has indeed been the breeding-place for types of aëroplanes. From France have the nations of late been largely gathering them--save Germany. She has preferred to evolve her own distinctive types. Even before Wilbur Wright appeared with his machine at Le Mans and the details were known, hearsay of his doings had fired the French imagination to do what he had done. In ignorance of the vital principle of movable surfaces that the Wrights had evolved, there came into existence the unbending, rigid type that was not destined to survive.