It is twenty years ago almost to the day since the world was saddened by the news of the death of one of its heroes—Wilbur Wright. The inspiring story of the successful attack made by the two brothers, Wilbur and Orville, on the age-long problem of human flight is too well known to be told at length here. But it is remarkable that the first flight by a motor driven aircraft on 17th December, 1903, was made only two years after Chanute, in a speech before the Western Society of Engineers, had felt compelled to use such cautious words as: “There is some hope that, for some limited purposes at least, man will eventually be able to fly through the air.”