great German had also a follower in America; one Octave Chanute,
who, in one of the statements which he has left on the subject
of his experiments acknowledges forty years' interest in the
problem of flight, did more to develop the glider in America
than--with the possible exception of Montgomery--any other man.
Chanute had all the practicality of an American; he began his
work, so far as actual gliding was concerned, with a full-sized
glider of the Lilienthal type, just before Lilienthal was
killed. In a rather rare monograph, entitled Experiments in
Flying, Chanute states that he found the Lilienthal glider
hazardous and decided to test the value of an idea of his own;
in this he followed the same general method, but reversed the
principle upon which Lilienthal had depended for maintaining his
equilibrium in the air. Lilienthal had shifted the weight of
his body, under immovable wings, as fast and as far as the
sustaining pressure varied under his surfaces; this shifting was
mainly done by moving the feet, as the actions required were
small except when alighting. Chanute's idea was to have the
operator remain seated in the machine in the air, and to
intervene only to steer or to alight; moving mechanism was
provided to adjust the wings automatically in order to restore
balance when necessary.

Chanute realised that experiments with models were of little
use; in order to be fully instructive, these experiments should
be made with a full-sized machine which carried its operator,
for models seldom fly twice alike in the open air, and no
relation can be gained from them of the divergent air currents
which they have experienced. Chanute's idea was that any flying
machine which might be constructed must be able to operate in a