GLENN HAMMOND CURTISS was born at Hammondsport, N. Y., on the shore of Lake Keuka, in 1878. From boyhood he was a competitor and winner in all sorts of races where speed was the supreme test. By nature a mechanic, he became noted for his ingenious contrivances in this line, and built a series of extremely fast motor-cycles, with one of which he made the record of one mile in 26⅖ seconds, which still stands as the fastest mile ever made by man with any form of mechanism. Through the purchasing of one of his light engines by Captain Baldwin for his dirigible, Curtiss became interested in aeronautical matters, and soon built a glider with which he sailed down from the Hammondsport hills. The combination of his motor and the glider was the next step, and on July 4, 1908, he flew 1½ miles with the _June Bug_, winning the _Scientific American_ trophy. Learning that the United States was not to be represented at the Rheims meet in August, 1909, he hastily built a biplane and went there. He won the first prize for the course of 30 kilometres (18.6 miles), second prize for the course of 10 kilometres, the James Gordon Bennett cup, and the tenth prize in the contest for distance. From Rheims he went to Brescia, Italy, and there won the first prize for speed. In all these contests he was matching his biplane against monoplanes which were acknowledged to be a faster type than the biplane. On May 29, 1910, Mr. Curtiss made the first stated aeroplane tour to take place in this country, travelling from Albany to New York City, 137 miles, with but one stop for fuel. With this flight he won a prize of $10,000. He has made many other notable flights and stands in the foremost rank of the active aviators. At the same time he is busily engaged in the manufacture of the Curtiss biplane and the Curtiss engine, both staple productions in their line. CHARLES KEENEY HAMILTON. CHARLES KEENEY HAMILTON is justly regarded as one of the most skilful of aviators. He was born in Connecticut in 1881, and showed his “bent” by making distressing, and often disastrous, leaps from high places with the family umbrella for a parachute. In 1904 he worked with Mr. Israel Ludlow, who at that time was experimenting with gliders of his own construction, and when Mr. Ludlow began towing them behind automobiles, Hamilton rode on the gliders and steered them. Later he became interested in ballooning, and made a tour of Japan with a small dirigible. [Illustration: Hamilton and Latham.] He early became famous in the aviation world by his spectacular glides from a great height. He has said that the first of these was unintentional, but his motor having stopped suddenly while he was high in the air, he had only the other alternative of falling vertically. The sensation of the swift gliding having pleased him, he does it frequently “for the fun of it.” These glides are made at so steep an angle that they have gained the distinctive name, “Hamilton dives.”