is not impressed and withdraws funding. 3 November – The first flight in a rigid airship is made by Ernst Jägels, flying the all-aluminium craft designed by David Schwarz and built by Carl Berg. It reaches an altitude of , proving metal-framed airships can become airborne, but after an engine failure is damaged beyond repair in an emergency landing. Carl Rickard Nyberg starts working on his Flugan. 1898 March – Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt calls for the creation of a four-officer board to study the utility of Samuel P. Langleys "flying machine," the Langley Aerodrome. Roosevelt asserts that "the machine has worked." It is the first documented United States Navy expression of interest in aviation. The machine is commissioned by the United States Army Signal Corps. 2 September – Alberto Santos-Dumont flies his first airship design. 22 October – Augustus Moore Herring claims a heavier-than-air flight along the beach at St. Joseph, Michigan of by attaching a compressed air motor to a biplane hang glider. However, there are no witnesses. The Aéro-Club de France is founded. The French Navy torpedo boat tender Foudre operates a spherical balloon experimentally during naval maneuvers in the Mediterranean Sea. Lyman Wiswell Gilmore, Jr., American, builds a steam driven monoplane. Edson Fessenden Gallaudet, American, builds a hydroplane. 1899 The Hague Convention of 1899 prohibits military aircraft from discharging projectiles and explosives, but permits the wartime use of aircraft for reconnaissance and other purposes. The Wright brothers begin experimenting with wing-warping as a means of controlling an aircraft. Samuel Cody begins experiments with kites big enough to lift a person. Percy Pilcher flies various gliders and is close to completing a powered machine but is killed when his glider crashes at Stanford Hall, England after a tail strut fails. Pilcher used a team of horses to pull the glider into the air. 22 November – The first of three British Army observation balloon sections arrives in South Africa to take part in the Second Boer War. The war will see the first large-scale use of observation balloons by the British armed forces. 11 December – A British Army observation balloon section takes part in the Battle of Magersfontein during the Second Boer War. 1900 February – In the Second Boer War, a British Army observation balloon section takes part in the relief of Ladysmith. 2 July – Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin pilots his