“Why dangerous?”
“We can’t carry enough gasoline to keep us in the air more than two hours, and it is a risky thing to land in the darkness. If I hadn’t caught sight of this open space, it would have gone hard with us even when the sun was shining.”
“It’s a wonderful discovery,” repeated Wharton, as if speaking with himself, “but a lot of improvements will have to be made. One of them is to carry more gasoline or find some stuff that will serve better. How long has anyone been able to sail with an aeroplane without landing?”
“I believe the record is something like five hours.”
“In two or three years or less time, they will keep aloft for a day or more. They’ll have to do it in order to cross the Atlantic.”
“There is little prospect of ever doing that.”
“Wellman tried it in a balloon, but was not able to make more than a start.”
“I agree with you that the day is not distant when the Atlantic will be crossed as regularly by heavier-than-air machines as it is by the Mauretania and Lusitania, but in the meantime we have got to make many improvements; that of carrying enough fuel being the most important.”
At this point Bohunkus felt that an observation was due from him.
“Humph! it’s easy ’nough to fix dat.”