¶ The dirigible wobbled, it swung up and then down, the engine wheezed and coughed—but Santos-Dumont kept his eyes fixed on the goal. The cheers of the crowd rose into the air and then died to a whisper as nerves became rigid with suspense. It wasn’t a question whether he would make it, now, but whether he would do it on time. For the minutes were flying faster than the ship—at last he passed over Longchamps, the Seine was crossed, and finally Santos-Dumont sailed by over the heads of the French Aero Club officials. The line had been crossed—and the flight completed in twenty-nine minutes and thirty seconds! ¶ Another countryman of this successful aeronaut was Augusto Severo who built a much larger balloon than had ever been attempted up to that time. “The Pax” which has been illustrated on an air stamp crashed, however, dashing Severo and his mechanic to a horrible death. The unfortunate airman struck the earth with such terrific force that the bones of his feet were forced through the soles of his boots. ¶ To Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, though, goes the greatest honors for bringing this type of aircraft to a really practical development. After a hectic, military life during which he served the Union cause in the Civil War under the immortal Lincoln, he retired to dream about the vision that had lived with him since youth. To build rigid balloons, to put a skeleton of metal under a hood of fabric was his contribution to this science. ¶ Count Zeppelin was 61 years of age when his first great airliner was finished, a ship over 400 feet long and 38 feet in diameter. This was by far the largest dirigible ever built up to that time, and thousands of people flocked to witness its first flight in July, 1899. Journalists, peasants, scientists, men and women of all ages and interests came to see this huge sausage-shaped balloon navigate through space. ¶ The morning of that epochal day was clear and bright, as bright as the feverish glint in Zeppelin’s eyes, as, with poorly-concealed excitement, he tested ropes and wires, and examined the hundred-and-one vital parts of the L. Z. 1. The great crowds that surged about the lake stood in hushed awe as he came out of the hangar after the inspection was completed, and reverently bowed his head in silent prayer. A few moments later, the roar of two powerful motors went echoing over the waters of Lake Constance, and slowly the dirigible glided from the cavernous depths of its hangar. And then, with a serene indifference, the L. Z. 1 floated upward, higher, higher into the full glare of the sun. ¶ While wave after wave of full-throated cheers announced to the world a triumphant achievement, the airship traveled three and a half miles. Seventeen minutes later, it descended safely at Immenstadt.