The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-08-07
WITH Thu FLYERS.
;ired Sergeant, U. S. A.

The past week was notable among the
nayigators of the air There
plished, perhaps, in the days than in any
equal length of time since flight by proved
to be possibility. The week started with the sue
cessful flight by M Bleriot across the English
channel, from Calais, in France, to Dover, in Eng
land. In a way this was the most noteworthy fight
that had ever been successfully concluded. The
channel at the point used for crossing is only
twenty-five miles WIDE and the entire length of
the flight did not exceed twenty-five miles. a few
days after NJ Bleriot's successful crossing of the
channel, Hubert Latham made the attempt, but
landed in the water after he had travelled about
twenty miles, within couple of miles of the Eng
lish coast where he was rescued by the French tor
pedo boats that were accompanying the flyer.
While all this was going on on the other side
of the water the Wright brothers were not idle In
their tests at Fort Myer Orvle Wright met all the
requirements of the government and turned the
machine over to the war department for the con-
tract price of $25,000 and in addition received
bonus of $4,000 for exceeding the speed require
ments of the government in the aeroplane The
tests were delayed by unfavorable weather, and ex
tensions of time were granted in order to give the
aviators every opportunity to up to the re-
quirements High winds prevented the tests taking
place on schedule time, but the delay taken adj
vantage of, and when the weather favorable the
machine was sent against every time and distance
record by heavier-than-air machines, carrying a
passenger
The results of the week naturally placed NJ.
Blerot and the Wright brothers before the world
as the leading aeroplanists, and the managers of
the Seattle fair were quick to the advantage
of having them appear in competition races at the
fair grounds To make such competition worth
while to the aviators, they offered purse of $25-
600 to secure the attraction. While the science of
air navigation has not yet been reduced to final
ity, such race at the fair would undoubtedly at
tract the attendance of thousands of people to see
the machines However it would hardly be neces-
sary to make the exhibition competition to attract
attention The competition feature would of
course add greatly to the prestige of the winner
but the Wrights have not shown disposition to
fight for honors, and it may be they will not ac
cept the terms of the exposition management M
Beriot has signifed his willingness to enter such
race if the Wrights will challenge him. But it is
doubtful if the science of aerial navigation would
be promoted by such competition and the liabil
ity of accident would probably delay rather than
further the final solution of the problem
Count Zeppelin brought out his dirigibe bal
loon during the week and sailed from Frederichs-
hafen to Frankfort Germany distance of 900
miles at an average speed of twenty -one miles an
hour, alighting in the Air Navigation Exposition
grounds, where he was greeted by 100000 people
and received guard of two regiments of soldierv
This accomplishment of Count Zeppelin is not equal
to one of his previous performances in distance
travelled, but it is designated his most successful