Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-17

rain the thousands stood, hoping
against hope that something sensation
al would happen. They were re-
warded not with sensationalism, but
with sights of dexterioussfying and ex-
| pert handling of big monoplanes.
Probably the prettiest picture in the
sky was Curtiss drawing a huge IS"
with his biplane for a brush. He was
up in the air 100 feet and the wind
was blowing with all the fury it can
just after a storm has cleared. The
sun was shining wancly through a
bank of blue, flecked here and there
with tumbling clouds of snowy white.
To the south the deep grey storm
clouds were fitting fast to sea.
Curtiss Braves Wind
Curtiss rose from the eastern point
of the field and shot straight into the
teeth of the wind. He rose higher and
higher as he drove to the west, turned
suddenly to the south and then, with
the graceful movements of a sea bird,
swung over the western end of the
grandstand. He swerved again as he
reached the northwest corner of the
field around pylon No 2, changing his
course to the southeast.
In a long rounding swing, Curtiss
passed around pylon No. l and came
to the earth almost in the same spot
from which he had started. His course
had been complete letter IS" and
had he continued in the air another
half minute he would have described
a figure s. The high wind aided him
in making the pretty flight, but it was
his deXtertty in manipulation which
was mainly responsible for the grace
full bit of aerial jockeying.
The wind action while Curtiss was
flying had a peculiar and unlocked for
effect. 1t developed a billboard hui
morist. He gave ocular demonstration
of the effect when, with letters a foot
high, he wrote upon the blackboard
near the judges stand: stop the wind.
Pray!" So that Boreas would know
there were some others besides Eng
lishmen making supplicatiops and that
other languages We're being uttered
sotto voce the billboard humorist
rubbed out the phrase and wrote upon
his slate: ''Arretez de vent. S. V. p"
which. when translated. means: ''Stop
the wind, if you please" But the wind
did not stop, for Boreas' ears are
closed to the supplcations of all.
whether those entreaties be uttered in
harsh words of Anglo-SaXon or polit-
est French.
One of the daring feats of Paulhan
came when he deliberately stopped his
engine in midair. Spectators held their
breath and prepared themselves for
something out of the ordinary, but it
did not happen. He Glided along for
a hundred feet or more and then sud-
denly opened the engine again. which
took up the business of propelling
machine and man through the air as
though nothing had happened. His
descent at the end of the flight was
one of the prettiest ever made by the
daring little Frenchman. He turned
completely around in his course and
when fifty feet from the ground shut
off the engine, gliding to the ground
with the grace of a bird. Usually
when Paulhan returns to terra firma
the rear portion of his biplane strikes
heavily upon the ground. In this de-
scent the front wheel struck lightly
and the drag runner at the rear just
tipped the earth.
Paulhan was in the air dozen times
performing all sorts of fancy evolu
tions. Once while he was up he started
after his altitude record, SO it was
thought He reached a height of 512
feet and then came to earth. He SIM
ply wanted to show the spectators that.
he was not afraid to go up in the air,
wind or no wind.
curtiss Holds Honors
The honors for getting into the air
i'm the shortest time and space still be-
long to Curtss. Paulhan, unable to
lower Curtiss' record for the course
tried to beat the record Of 9S feet for
starting. He failed, however, doing 1t
(Continued Page Threel