Early flight pioneersThe Jet EngineFuture aviation Cars - a failure?Automobiles - The future? Manned Flight AEROPLANE THAT TRAVELS 40 MILES AN HOUR. Considerable excitement prevails in aeronautical circles owing to the reports now afloat concerning the latest experiments of the Brothers Wright, two young American aeronauts, who for years have been famous owing to the remarkable improvements they have effected in aeroplanes or flying-machines. Wilbur Wright flying the brother's plane over Ohio That they have accomplished free flight, with an apparatus heavier than air, in which no lifting power derived from gases, enclosed in gas vessels or otherwise, is made use of, is a fact vouchsafed by a letter from Mr. Wilbur Wright, stating that he and his brother had accomplished lengthy flights with a motor-driven machine, and had succeeded in maintaining themselves for a full half-hour in the air, executing extended flight and returning to the starting point. For eight weeks past the brothers have been carrying out remarkable flights at Dayton, Ohio, and numerous witnesses have come forward to describe the evolutions of their new aeroplane. Flights of twenty and thirty miles are recorded, the speeds are said to have been as high as forty miles an hour, and the vessel has described various figures in the air to show how faithfully it answers the helm. They have started out again and again from the shed, remained aloft for more than an hour at a time, returning to the starting place. The aeroplanes are light structures of canvas, offering large horizontal surfaces to the air, and are so constructed as to secure great buoyancy and steadiness. It was only after long study of the flight of birds that the inventors hit upon a model which gave any assurance of success. Growing bolder and more expert and always having a reliable sea breeze to give them invaluable aid, they made steady progress until two years ago they had got to the stage in which they could mount a motor on the frame and thus secure continued flight instead of a mere glide. Since then they have been perfecting the model, which is described as being shaped like a box kite, and is forty feet by six feet in size. The motor mounted upon it is a petrol engine of 24-h.p. The operator lies face downwards, his chest resting on a cushion, and with his hands he directs the steering and controls the speed of the engine. Very ingenious is the method of starting the vessel. The aeroplane is mounted on a little carriage running on rails, and the whole apparatus is started at the top of a long, narrow, inclined plane. Running down this the aeroplane soon begins to lift and the engine being put in motion at the right moment, the machine glides into the air and take its flight with great smoothness. The engine drives two propellers working at high speed. The correspondent of a French technical paper in an interview with one of the Wrights learned that they were experiencing some trouble yet from the motor, which is of a rather old pattern. On the ground it developed 24-h.p., and it worked satisfactorily in the air for about twenty minutes, but then it seemed to weaken considerably. In this interview Mr. Wilbur Wright stated that they had accomplished journeys up to thirty miles, but were then compelled to stop owing to the motor not working properly. Their experiments may consequently go on for some time longer, but there is every reason to believe that they will attain marvellous results with their latest flying machine.