The week has been remarkable for the activity and achieve-
ments of aeronauts and aviators. On Sunday last the French, military dirigible balloon 'Republique' made a journey lasting six and a half hours from Chalais-Meudon vid Paris to Com- piegne and back, the distance being estimated at a hundred and eighty to two hundred kilometres. On the same day Mr. Wilbur Wright covered twenty-two kilometres in nineteen minutes forty-eight seconds in his aeroplane at Le Mans; and, finally, at Issy-les-Molineaux M. Delagrange established a new aeroplane "world's record" both for time and distance by remaining in the air for twenty-nine minutes fifty-three and four-fifth seconds, in which he covered twenty-four kilometres seven hundred and twenty-seven metres. It must be borne in mind that it was only the return of fine weather which rendered these results possible, and that in his second flight a gust of wind forced Mr. Wright to make a sudden turn which drove his left wing against the ground and broke it. All these achievements, however, were easily eclipsed on Wednesday on the parade ground at Fort Myer, near Washington, by Mr. Orville Wright, who in two succes- sive flights stayed in the air for fifty-seven minutes thirty-one seconds and one hour two minutes fifteen seconds respectively, the second flight satisfying the Government conditions of an hour's flight in the air. On Thursday Mr. Orville Wright did' even better, flying for one hour five minutes fifty-two seconds in a wind blowing at the rate of twelve miles an hour.
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