It is believed that he intended to incorporate a number of these
kites in a new machine, a triplane, of which the fragments
remaining are hardly sufficient to reconstitute the complete
glider. This new machine was never given a trial. For on
September 30th, 1899, at Stamford Hall, Market Harborough,
Pilcher agreed to give a demonstration of gliding flight, but
owing to the unfavourable weather he decided to postpone the
trial of the new machine and to experiment with the 'Hawk,'
which was intended to rise from a level field, towed by a line
passing over a tackle drawn by two horses. At the first trial
the machine rose easily, but the tow-line snapped when it was
well clear of the ground, and the glider descended, weighed down
through being sodden with rain. Pilcher resolved on a second
trial, in which the glider again rose easily to about thirty
feet, when one of the guy wires of the tail broke, and the tail
collapsed; the machine fell to the ground, turning over, and
Pilcher was unconscious when he was freed from the wreckage.

Hopes were entertained of his recovery, but he died on Monday,
October 2nd, 1899, aged only thirty-four. His work in the cause
of flying lasted only four years, but in that time his actual
accomplishments were sufficient to place his name beside that of
Lilienthal, with whom he ranks as one of the greatest exponents
of gliding flight.



VIII. AMERICAN GLIDING EXPERIMENTS

While Pilcher was carrying on Lilienthal's work in England, the