They turned from the records of other inventors' models to study the one perfect model, the bird.

Said Wilbur Wright, speaking before the Society of Western Engineers, at Chicago: "The bird's wings are undoubtedly very well designed indeed, but it is not any extraordinary efficiency that strikes with astonishment, but rather the marvelous skill with which they are used.

It is true that I have seen birds perform soaring feats of almost incredible nature in positions where it was not possible to measure the speed and trend of the wind, but whenever it was possible to determine by actual measurements the conditions under which the soaring was performed it was easy to account for it on the basis of the results obtained with artificial wings.

The soaring problem is apparently not so much one of better wings as of better operators."* * Cited in Turner, "The Romance of Aeronautics".
When the Wrights determined to fly, two problems which had beset earlier experimenters had been partially solved.

Experience had brought out certain facts regarding the wings; and invention had supplied an engine.
But the laws governing the balancing and steering of the machine were unknown.