But it was in the balancing control of their machine that the
Wrights showed such great ingenuity. Running from the edges of
the lower plane were some wires which met at a point where the
pilot could control them. The edges of the plane were flexible;
that is, they could be bent slightly either up or down, and this
movement of the flexible plane is known as WING WARPING.

You know that when a cyclist is going round a curve his machine
leans inwards. Perhaps some of you have seen motor races, such
as those held at Brooklands; if so, you must have noticed that
the track is banked very steeply at the corners, and when the
motorist is going round these corners at, say, 80 miles an hour,
his motor makes a considerable angle with the level ground, and
looks as if it must topple over. The aeroplane acts in a similar
manner, and, unless some means are taken to prevent it, it will
turn over.

Let us now see how the pilot worked the "Wright" glider. Suppose
the machine tilted down on one side, while in the air, the pilot
would pull down, or warp, the edges of the planes on that side of
the machine which was the lower. By an ingenious contrivance,
when one side was warped down, the other was warped up, with the
effect that the machine would be brought back into a horizontal
position. (As we shall return to the subject of wing warping in a
later chapter, we need not discuss it further here.)

It must not be imagined that as soon as the Wrights had
constructed a glider fitted with this clever system of
controlling mechanism they could fly when and where they liked.