It is not necessary to follow further the aeronautic achievements of the Wright brothers. While they were the first to construct a successful aeroplane, inventors in America and abroad quickly followed them and machines of various forms and construction but based on the same principle were soon making record flights in many lands. The simultaneous development of the aeroplane in the United States and Europe is explained by the fact that the progress of the experiments of the Wright Brothers was promptly reported and eagerly noted on the other side of the Atlantic. Octave Chanute immediately after his visit to Kitty Hawk made a trip abroad and gave a detailed account of what the Wright brothers had accomplished. This account with drawings was published and European inventors had this information on which to work. In 1909 Louis Bleriot, a French aviator, who had sprung into prominence the preceding year, crossed the English Channel in his beautiful birdlike monoplane. In 1910 George Chauz, flying upward 7,000 feet, crossed the Alps amid the treacherous and frozen winds of the snow-capped peaks only to meet a tragic death as he neared the goal in sunny Italy. Equally daring and dangerous was the trip of the brilliant American aviator Glenn Curtis in his biplane from Albany to New York City, followed a few days later by the notable achievement of Charles K. Hamilton who in a machine of the same make flew from New York City to Philadelphia at the average speed of fifty and one-half miles an hour. Aviation meets and record breaking flights in this country and Europe now followed in such rapid succession that the long list would only weary the reader. In this rapid and spectacular progress that gave man dominion over the air and the power to surpass the eagle’s flight it is interesting to note how well the Wrights kept in the forefront of the era that they ushered in. Frequent changes have greatly improved the efficiency of their machine. In 1910 it made the greatest altitude flight, reaching a height of 11,476 feet. In 1911 C. P. Rodgers, in successive stages, flew in one of their biplanes from New York City to Long Branch, California, a distance of 4,029 miles, the longest flight ever made. Recent Improvements