Page:O que eu vi, o que nós veremos (1918).pdf/50

 It was a general astonishment. Everyone wanted to know how the aircraft looked like.

Its dimensions were: length, 10 meters; wingspan, 12 meters; total surface, 80 square meters; weight, 160 kilos; engine, 24 HP.

It was a big and biplane aircraft and I did it this way, just in order to gather more easiness to fly, because I always preferred the small aircrafts, so much that I made an effort to invent them, what I got with my minuscule "Demoiselle", the ideal airplane for an amateur.

Continuing in my idea of evolution, I attached my airplane to my last balloon, the no. 14; for this reason, I baptized it with the name of 14-bis. With this hybrid set, I made several experiments in Bagatelle, getting used, day by day, to the control of the airplane, and only when I felt master of the maneuvers, I got rid of the balloon.

It's true that I have always been fortunate, of an unprecedented luck in all my aerial ventures; I had a good luck star.

I also attribute this luck to my prudence.