ALBERTO SANTOS-DUMONT
per second, at the altitude of the Eiffel Tower. My first air-ship, in 1898, developed au point fixe the promise of a speed of 8 meters (26 feet) per second. I therefore was now setting out to win a difficult race against a time limit, in a wind blowing almost as fast as the highest theoretical speed that I had hoped to realize with my first air-ship.
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Winning the Great Prize
The official start took place at 2.42 p.m. In spite of the side-wind, I held my course straight to the goal. I gradually drove the air-ship horizontally upward, to a height of about 15 meters (50 feet) above the flag on the summit of the Eiffel Tower. As I passed it, I turned, bringing the air-ship round the lightning-conductor at a distance of about 50 meters (165 feet). The Tower was thus turned at 2.51 P.M.—the distance of 5 kilometers (3 miles) having been covered in nine minutes. The return trip was almost directly in the teeth of the wind. During the trip to the Tower, also, the motor had worked fairly well; but a petroleum motor of lightconstruction is adelicate and capricious machine. Five hundred meters ( mile) from the Eiffel Tower, it was actually on the point of stopping, and I had a moment of terrible uncertainty. If the motor stopped the air-ship would undoubtedly be dashed against the Tower. I had to make a quick decision—it was to abandon the steering-wheel for a moment, at the risk of drifting from my course, to devote my attention to the lever controlling the electric spark. The motor began to work again. A second’s hesitation might have cost me my life.
Just above the fortifications of Paris, the motor almost failed again. Again I had to devote myself to keeping it in motion. The screw almost came to a stop; and the air-ship, a trifle heavier than the air, was rapidly falling. Up to this moment I had not used my ballast. Now I threw out enough sand to reëstablish my equilibrium. The balloon, buffeted by the wind, advanced with difficulty. From time to time a pitching movement must have been visibie to those below. Some day I may be able to correct such pitching by means of a horizontal rudder; it is due to the irregular motion of the petroleum motor. Were the electric motor possible, it would be altogether avoided.
Suddenly the sound of cheering came faintly up to me. It was the applause of the multitude on the Auteuil race-track. The Prix Fin-Picard had just been run, and preparations for the next race were being made. For a moment I looked down on the scene, from my altitude
