Finally, with the wind still blowing a gale, Paulhan started for Manchester. Grahame-White heard of this at 6:30 in the evening, but manfully started after his competitor and flew 60 miles, when he was finally forced to land in the dark. Determined to remain in the race, he started again about three o'clock in the morning with the intention of trying to catch up with the daring Frenchman. Besides the bitter cold, it was so dark that the Englishman could not see whether he was flying high or low or even toward Manchester. The danger of this kind of flying he knew was very great, because if his engine failed him he would have had to come to earth anywhere he happened to light, as likely on a church steeple or in a lake as on a level spot. Of this famous flight Grahame-White wrote in his book, "The Story of the Aeroplane":
"My start was really something in the nature of a confused jumble. Faint lights swept away on either side as my machine moved across the ground. I could not judge my ascent at all, on account of the darkness. But I elevated as quickly as possible, and got away from the ground smartly.
"Directly I was at a respectable height, I could see the lights of the railway station very distinctly. I headed toward them. Looking directly down, I found that I could distinguish nothing on the ground below me. It was all a black smudge. I flew right over the lights of the railway station—and as I was doing so my engine began to miss fire. It was certainly a very uncomfortable moment—one of the most uncomfortable I have ever experienced.
"But, very fortunately for me, after a momentary spluttering, the engine picked up again, and fired properly. I had begun to sink toward the ground, upon which I knew I could have picked out no landing place in the darkness. As soon as my engine began to do its work again, however, I rose and continued my flight smoothly."
With the dawn came a terrific wind which forced the aviator to land near Polesworth. While waiting for the wind to abate the Englishman and his friends heard Paulhan had reached Manchester and won the prize.
Of Paulhan's famous flight, one of the men who was aboard the special train following Paulhan, according to Mr. Grahame-White, said:
"I do not think I have ever seen a machine roll about in the air as his did. He was, we could see, incessantly at work. One wind gust after another struck the machine and it literally reeled under the shock.
"Up and down it went, and from side to side. Paulhan's pluck and determination were remarkable. I do not think that any other man could have kept on with such determination as he displayed. It was a strange thing to see how the wind got worse and worse as the airman flew on."
But these feats that startled the world in 1910 would not cause a ripple of enthusiasm now, since the North American Continent has been crossed by aeroplane; since the trip from Boston to Washington and from St. Louis to New York has been made; since a machine has stayed in the air a whole day, or more than eight and a half hours, since a dozen passengers have been carried half a dozen miles and since the development of the hydro-aeroplane.