Owing to Mr. Langley’s belief that the tests of the man-carrying aerodrome must not only be made over the water, but that it was necessary that the machine be launched from a car running on a track at a considerable elevation in order to permit the machine to drop a short distance after being launched in case it was not quite up to soaring speed when launched, it was necessary that the aerodrome be so constructed that it could be readily transported to the launching track from the interior of the house-boat where it was stored. This plan of storing the main body of the machine in the interior of the boat and hoisting it to the launching track just before attempting a flight (some of the difficulties of which may be more clearly appreciated by an inspection of Plate 60), made it necessary that the wings, tail and guy-posts be so constructed as to be readily attachable to and detachable from the main frame, and since the weather conditions are seldom suitable for a test for more than a couple of hours at a time, it was necessary that the mechanism employed for attaching these parts be so arranged that the proper settings of the different parts could be quickly obtained, and without requiring the exercise of judgment which past experience had shown did not often manifest itself during the hurry of the preparations for a test. While the wings, therefore, were made removable, yet all of the sockets, guy-wires, etc., which were loosened in removing them, were made with positive stops on them so that each fitting that was to be tightened up in assembling could be adjusted to its definitely determined position. As all of the models had been constructed with these same parts removable in order to permit them to be readily shipped back and forth in the many trips which had been made with them from Washington to Chopawamsic Island, the same details of arrangement were used for attaching these parts on the large aerodrome, though the actual fittings by which the parts were attached in the latter case became more elaborate.