My first illustration Fig. 1 shows how the World's very first powered flight was announced in this Country—and it had no more notice in any other—I cannot help feeling that the first manned space flight will cause a slightly greater fuss.

I suppose it really all began, so far as my urge to fly was concerned, in the summer of 1910. At that time I owned half a 166 ton schooner—the owner of the other half was my old friend Bill Eyre.

Incidentally, the engineer in charge of the auxiliary engine was Fred Sigrist. We were to remain in partnership through many varied experiences in aviation for the following 30 years.

We had left Le Havre and as we were becalmed in the Channel we put into Dover Harbour. There we heard that an American architect of Spanish descent, Johnny Moisant, was flying a Bleriot monoplane (Fig. 2) in a field nearby so we thought we would go and have a look.