Other successful experiments followed, and the claim of the Wrights to
be considered the inventors of the first successful man-carrying flying
machine was established. French inventors at about the same time were
carrying on successful experiments with machines similarly constructed.
September 16, 1908, Wilbur Wright, at Le Mans, France, demonstrated that
his machine could remain in the air for over an hour and at the same
time fly across country at a high speed. In that year, also, Orville
Wright, in a government test at Fort Myer, Virginia, not only made
flights lasting over an hour, but carried a companion with him. During
July, 1909, a French aviator, Bleriot, flew across the English Channel,