The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1910-10-13

wing riders" The blue vault Of
heaven Is fretted by thousands Of
roaring propellers and shifting planes.
THE bird men" are dreaming dreams
of c~ross-continent flights. The more
imaginative Of them catch glimpses of
Visions of transatlantic trips, faster
than the fight of the frigate bird.
1t may happen the hour of trial
comes in the very midst of an appar-
ent success. Engines may be working
perfectly and with even beat. The
roar of the spinning propellers may
be %droning a song of coincidence and
security. Then something snaps; a
guy wire parts like a stretched fiddle
string, the roar of the engine breaks
n sputters, or the big planes
crumple because of some ~unguessed
weakness. Then comes that terrible
rush of air as the machine, engine,
rent planes and tangle of bent and
broken framework bears the aviator
to a terrible death.
When wireless telegraphy was In
vented 1t was but a year or SO until
the country was filled with amateurs,
all busily working on new theories of
transferring messages. AS 500 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 and
backyard woodsheds all over the civ
ilized world men and boys began to
try to build for themselves machines
In which to spurn the solid earth.
Historically, the science of aviation
has been taken up, and with a few
more improvements the death roll will
grow to ever greater proportions. So
far most Of the men who have met
death have been veteran aviators.
D~elagrange. lie Blon. Ferber, Lefebvre
and Rolls were all well-known 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 can be con-
structed will come a rush of amateurs
into the ranks of the a~viators. More
deaths are bound to follow when these
would-be man birds have bought for
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 aviators
from the clouds to the too solid
earth" will further demonstrate that
the mastery of the air must be bought
with human life.
An an sysis OF the accidents of the
past tN.o years shows that death
comes in a dozen shapes to the daring
aviator. The aeroplane is a pitifully
new thing, and even the veterans Of
the air are not always able to detect
In their machines the lurking weak
nesses. The first Of the aeroplane ac-
cidents that resulted fatally was
caused by the guy wire Of one of the
planes being placed o near the pro-
peller blades. Selfridgs died in this
accident and Orville Wright was ter
ribly injured. 1t was months before
he again took up the problem of aerial
flights.
1t was q year later before death
took his toll again from the ranks of
the air workers. On the seventh of
September, 1909, two men, the fore.
most aviators in their respective coun-
tries, met their deaths. Rossi was en-.
gagged In testing a machine of his own
invention ear Rome. and after a few
short and successful flights at a low
altitude he tilted his planes upward
at a considerable angle and shot into
the air for al ambitious trial. He had
barely reached a height of so feet till
some Of the intricate machinery gave
way and he vas dashed to death. M.
Lefebvre. a well-known aeronaut of
France, was killed on the same day
while soaring above Juvissy In a
| Wright biplane. Two weeks later the
pride OF the Frenchmen in aeronau-
tics, Capt. Louis Ferdinand Ferber, a
pioneer In the art of flying, was killed
In q peculiar accident, one OF the
many unexplainable ones that mark
the chronology of fight. He wal soar.
Ing over q field near Boulogne, when
his machine turned turtle" In the air.