The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1910-09-02

d.
wing riders" The blue vault OIL
heaven is fretted by thousands vi
roaring ~propellers and shifting planes.
THE bird men" are dreaming dreams
of cross-continent flights. The more
imaginative of them catch glimpses OIL
visions of transatlantic trips, faster
than the flight of the frigate bird.
1t may happen the hour or triai
comes in the very midst of an appar-
ent success. Engines may be working
perfectly and with even beat. Inc
roar of the spinning propellers may
be droning a song Of ~onohdence anu
security. Then something snaps d
guy wire parts like a stretched hddle
string. the roar Of the engine breaks
and sputters, or the big planes
crumple because of some ungueSSeu
weakness. Then comes that terrlDie
rush of air as the machine, engine,
rent planes and tangle OF bent ana
broken framework bears the aviator
to a terrible death.
When wireless telegraphy was IN
| vented it was but a year or so Hntli
| the country was filed with amateurs,
| all busily working on new theories OF
| transferring messages. AS soon as
| the Wrights, Farman, Bleriot, Paulhan
| and Curtiss and others had demon
strated that a heavier-than-air ma
| chine could actually remain in the air,
in a thousand barns, warehouses n
backward woodsheds all over the CIV
ilized world men and boys began to
try to build for themselves machines
in which to spurn the solid eartn.
Historically, the science OF aviation
has been taken up, n with a few
] more improvements the death roll Will
grow to even greater proportions. 80
far most Of the men who have met
death have been veteran avlators.
Delagrange, LIE Blon, Ferber, Lefebvre
and Rolls were all wellknown and in
ternationally famous in the air fields.
But the moment came that found them
helpless despite their skill.
With the multiplying OF factories
where the cheap fliers a be con
structed will come a rush OF amateurs
into the ranks of the aviators. More
deaths are bound to follow when these
would-be man birds have bought Tor
themselves machines and start In To
perfect themselves In the art OF flight
The list Of deaths is bound to grow
as soon as the means of flight Is
brought within reach of the average
purse. A shower of wOuld-be av1ators
from the clouds to the too solo
earth" will further demonstrate thai
the mastery of the air must be bough'
with human life.
An analysis of the accidents of thu
past two years shows that deatl
!, comes In a dozen shapes to the daring
!, aviator. The %aeroplane Is a pitifull.
new thing, and ever the veterans o
the air are not always able to detec
in their machines the lurking weak
nesses. The first of the ae%roplane &C
cidents that resulted fatally wa
caused by the guy wire of n OF tn
t planes being placed too near the pre-
peller blades. Selfridge died in thi
t accident and Orville Wright was tel
ribly injured. 1t was months befor
e he again took up the problem of aeri:
flights.
o It was a year later before deaf
g took his toll again from the ranks {
the air workers. On the seventh
. September, 1909, two men, the for
# most aviators in their respective coul
tries, met their deaths. Rossi was el
)" gagged In testing a machine of his Ow
J. invention near Rome, and after a fe
K short and successful flights at a 10
j. altitude he tilted his planes upwaI
y at a considerable angle and shot I'M
le the air for an ambitious trial. He hs
n barely reached a height of GO feet t
Re some of the intricate machinery gay
s. way and he was dashed to death. !
Lefebyre, a well-known a%eronaut
Id France. was killed on the same d,
Id while soaring above Juvissy In
Wright biplane. Two weeks later Il
ed pride of the Frenchmen in aerona
e. tics. Capt. Louis Ferdinand Ferber.
n pioneer in the art of flying. was kill
m in a peculiar accident, one OF t
of many unexplainable ones that ma
he the chronology of flight. He was soi
I'M ing over a field near Boulogne. VIII
of his machine turned turtle in the q