The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-08-25
WEDNESDAY,. AUGUST as, 1908.
AS WAS EXPECTED.

We have peen expecting to read or hear o: airship collisions along with other performances. True, aviators are not very numerous as yet. and 1t Is also a fact that the atmosphere Is al- most without limit in its room and vastness. but for all that some of the flyers might be expected to collide, even if for nothing but a spirit of em- .uIation or defiance. We have not so far heard of an actual collision, but thz following from The Kansas City Journal tells of a close shave:
 MT. Curtiss, the American aviator at IAheims, was in imminent danger of running down a flying Frenchman or of being run down by him. He solved sss of R sae Fianes tS. sr ns sH Eauls. according to the news dis patehes. wildly cheered this every ob- vious solution of the difficulty.
 It may be safely asserted that most of the railroad collisions are due to the fact that it IS impossible for two trains to pass each other on the same disastrous attempts to eyade funda- mental law of physics which ubborn- Aiy refuses to be waived. the trains come together. for nature has deereed that no two bodies can occupy the same place at the same time. Ocean steamers can side-step each other if they are notified In time, but even the submarines have not yet learned the trick of shooting over or under each other in order to avoid a collision. MT. Curtiss has pointed the way and, as
 Americans usually ysn, GS he came tSs out otser shin instead of under it.
 Now. as we said. that was an un- comfortably barrow escape for one or both the aviators. A false movement. or a slight failure of the machines to work properly would have caused them to butt together in the air like a cou- pie of belligerent blly-goats on the solid earth. The inevitable result of that would have been for the adven- turous flyers to take a tumble with unpleasant results. to say the least of it. And that would not have been the worst of Tt. for such a pumping to- Eether might have bought on some un- pleasant international complications between France and this great country. If there had been a suspicion that one or the other was in the wrong there would have been a lot of talk and ex- p plantations, and France and the United States might have come 10 a scrappfng match
 It has sometimes been a matter of {, wonder if there can be such a thing known In aviation as a right-of- way through the air. If two machines are meeting each other. and each oheYs the road law in force on earth and turns 10 the right there will be no harm done. but If each insists on going straight forward. or If one tries to go over or under the other and the other does the same thing there would be something doing. we should say There are people in the world just stubborn { enough and contrary enough to do that very thing, and then if there Is not ! music iu the air therell be a lot of something else
 When two trains meet on the same track, or when two automobiles have a head-end collision. the passengers may be injured, but at least they are still on the earth and can be gathered up. but If two flying machines butt each other where will the folks be? Prob ssly scattered promlscuously through Al. | them together That's why we wonder how they are going to define the air routes and require each flyer to steer an his own road