CHAPTER VIII
HOW IT FEELS TO NAVIGATE THE AIR
NOTWITHSTANDING the breakdown I felt nothing but elation that night. The sentiment of success filled me: I had navigated the air.
I had performed every evolution prescribed by the problem. The breakdown itself had not been due to any cause foreseen by the professional aeronauts.
I had mounted without sacrificing ballast. I had descended without sacrificing gas. My shifting weights had proved successful, and it would have been impossible not to recognise the capital triumph of these oblique flights through the air. No one had ever made them before.
Of course, when starting, or shortly after leaving the ground, one has sometimes to throw out ballast to balance the machine, as one may have made a mistake and started with the air-ship far too heavy. What I have referred to are manoeuvres in the air.
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