HENRI FARMAN.
Henri Farman, justly regarded as the most prominent figure in the aviation world today, was born in France in 1873. His father was an Englishman.
While a mere boy he became locally famous as a bicycle racer, and later achieved a wider fame as a fearless and skillful driver in automobile races. In 1902 he won the Paris-Vienna race.
In September, 1907, he made his first attempt to fly, using the second biplane built by his friend Gabriel Voisin, and in the following year he won with it the Deutsch-Archdeacon prize of $10,000. He then built a machine after his own ideas, which more resembles the Wright machine than the Voisin, and with it he has won many prizes, and made many world records. Demands for machines, and for teaching the art of handling them, have poured in upon him, necessitating a continual increase of manufacturing facilities until it may safely be said that he has the largest plant for building flying machines in the world, turning out the largest number of machines, and through his school for aviators is instructing a larger number of pupils annually than any other similar establishment.