Madam, - Paul Duffy writes (August 27th) that "on December 17th, 1903, Orville Wright made the first successful flight in a powered aircraft". This is not correct.
On September 24th, 1852, Henri Giffard flew a cigar-shaped non-rigid airship with a steam engine for 17 miles from Paris. The first rigid aircraft, LZ 1, designed by General Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, flew at Friedrichshafen on July 2nd 1900. - Yours, etc.,
S. Ua CONCHUBHAIR, Aarán Mór, Gaillimh.
