On 29 July, using a donkey and a system of cables, Santos-Dumont hoisted the Oiseau de Proie to the top of a tower 13 metres high (2 metres were stuck in the ground), installed a few days earlier on his property in Neuilly. This frame was very similar to the one Ferber had used at Chalais-Meudon for the May 1905 experiments with the 6-bis. The plane, suspended on a movable hook connected to an inclined steel wire, glided without a propeller 60 metres from the top of the tower to a smaller one, only six metres long, on the Boulevard de la Seine. This allowed Santos-Dumont to get a feel for the aeroplane and to study its centre of gravity.DeGoul, Marius. L'aeroplane Santos Dumont, L'Aérophile. Paris: Aéroclub de France, 14o ano, no 7, jul. 1906, pp. 167–169. In August the 14-bis was unsuccessful in trying to take off because the 24-hp engine was not powerful enough. On 13 September, the 14-bis made a 7 to 13-metre test flight with a 50 hp Antoinette engine, at 8:40 a.m, which ended in an accident that damaged the propeller and landing gear, but that was praised by La Nature magazine. On 30 September he interrupted the tests of the 14-bis to compete in the Gordon Bennett Cup with the Deux Amériques balloon. He abandoned it after an accident, having flown 134 kilometres in 6 hours and 20 minutes. The accident occurred while attempting a manoeuvre that caused the engine gear to fracture his arm.
On 29 July, using a donkey and a system of cables, Santos-Dumont hoisted the Oiseau de Proie to the top of a tower 13 metres high (2 metres were stuck in the ground), installed a few days earlier on his property in Neuilly. This frame was very similar to the one Ferber had used at Chalais-Meudon for the May 1905 experiments with the 6-bis. The plane, suspended on a movable hook connected to an inclined steel wire, glided without a propeller 60 metres from the top of the tower to a smaller one, only six metres long, on the Boulevard de la Seine. This allowed Santos-Dumont to get a feel for the aeroplane and to study its centre of gravity.DeGoul, Marius. L'aeroplane Santos Dumont, L'Aérophile. Paris: Aéroclub de France, 14o ano, no 7, jul. 1906, pp. 167–169. In August the 14-bis was unsuccessful in trying to take off becau!se the 24-hp engine was not powerful enough. On 13 September, the 14.-bis made a 7 to 13-metre test flight with a 50 hp Antoinette engine, at 8:40 a.m, which ended in an accident that damaged the propeller and landing gear, but that was praised by La Nature magazine. On 30 September he interrupted the tests of ?the 14-bis to compete in the Gordon Bennett Cup with the Deux Amériques balloon. He abandoned it after an accident, ?having flown 134 kilometres in 6 hours and 20 minutes. The accident occurred while attempting a manoeuvre that caused the engine gear to fracture his arm.