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the problem.

"That solution is coming, whatever people may think, and I really believe myself that within a year from now there 
will be a great number of machines in the air. This is certain to happen within two years at any rate.

Real Flying Machine Here.
"We cannot get away from the fact that the real flying machine has now made its appearance. M. Santos-Dumont has proved this in his recent demonstrations, and these mark the beginning of a totally new epoch in the history of the world. There are sure to be startling developments within the next year. We are only on the threshold at present, and the immediate future is full of possibilities.

"Personally, I think that the road to success lies in the development of powerful motors. This means careful and expensive experiments, yet I feel sure that success will soon be achieved. The flying machine will be a sporting affair in the beginning, just as the automobile was. 

"But in the same way it will be developed so that it can be used for practically all commercial purposes. Some persons may declare this the dream of a visionary. It is no such thing. Flying machines have come. They will be improved, and at no very distant time, ten years at most, we shall be travelling from place to place in our flying machines just as at the present day we go by train or automobile."

Professor A. K. Huntington, of King's College, London, who was one of the two British competitors in the international balloon race which ended in England, also thinks that the immediate future holds great probabilities in the development of aerial navigation. He said:- 

"The future is with aeroplanes. Personally I have not done much with them up to now, except having models made. Probably what has retarded progress up to now is the expense attaching to the experiments.

Wright Brothers' Machine.
"The Wright brothers have been pegging away for years and must have tried a great number of models. Some years ago they got as far as an apparatus that would ft[[lift]] a man, and although they have kept the results of their trials secret there is no doubt that they have made a great advance [[in]] the last year or two.  

"Of course I am only going on what I eard[[heard]], but I think they have succeeded in oducing[[producing]] a flying machine of practical lue[[value]]. A great deal of scepticism has been pressed[[expressed]] about their flying twenty-four les[[miles]] That is a very considerable achievement.

Yet, personally, I think they have done and now, so far as they are concerned, [[it]] simply becomes a question of working [[out]] the details.

However, it all amounts to this:-the ng[[flying]] machine is an accomplished fact, [[page cut off on left side]] several others beside the brothers [[?]] have arrived at good results. I [[think]] we will soon have a workable ma[[machine]]. You see when once you get a ma[[machine]] that will lift, improvements are ome[[to come]]  very rapidly.
objection I see in the aeroplane at
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known of the claims of the Wright brothers, beyond bringing out more clearly than ever the fact that considerable trouble has been met with in finding the correct way of maintaining one’s balance in the air. It is this problem, in fact, with which M. Santos-Dumont is now struggling.

At the Aéro Club a good deal of scepticism reigns concerning the claims made by the Wrights, especially with regard to the oft repeated statement that the French government has practically purchased the apparatus.
M. Besançon said that so far as he knew the offer made by the Wrights, that they would display the apparatus to any one willing to pay a million francs ($200,000) for its purchase in case they succeeded in flying fifty kilometres (thirty-one and one-fourth miles) in an hour, had never been withdrawn. He considered it astonishing that the offer had never been accepted, seeing that no risks were to be run.
M. Jacques Faure, hero of several sensational cross channel balloon trips and other long distance flights, seen by a HERALD correspondent concerning the Wrights, held he had never from the commencement had the slightest confidence in the statements made concerning their long distance flights. Missions had been sent over from France to investigate the statements made and had returned with a verdict of “Not proven.”

WON BIG BALLOON RACE BY TRATEGY [[STRATEGY]]

That the recent international balloon race in Paris will give a great impetus to aeronautics and the winning of the trophy by an American team will stimulate ballooning in the United States is the belief of Major H. B. Hersey, who accompanied Lieutenant Frank P. Lahm in the balloon which won the International Cup.
Major Hersey returned yesterday on the Savoie, of the French line, to resume his duties as inspector of the Western division of the United States weather service. He will return to Europe in the spring, to accompany Walter Wellman as his chief aid in the Wellman polar expedition. He gave yesterday a graphic account of the voyage through the air from Paris to Whitby, England.
“We took a westerly course, the wind carrying us straight in that direction,” said Major Hersey.
“Of course, I had made a study of meteorology for many years, and some time before we started I got a weather map of Western Europe and tried to figure out the possible directions of wind currents. It struck me that we had best keep low and not get into the upper air, where the currents are not naturally so well known as nearer the earth. I concluded that if currents had about the same habits as over here, the direction of the wind would be sure to change before we got out of France because of the usual circular motion of a current.
“It turned out just as I had expected. We only went up about 300 to 500 feet above the ground on an average, and when we reached the west of France we turned to the north, as I figured out before starting. Both the Comte de La Vaulx and the Hon. C. S. Rolls went up to a high level, and though Mr. Rolls started an hour or more ahead of us, he did not reach England until half past ten o’clock the next morning, and it wasn’t long before he reached the east coast and had to descend.”