Barbour County index., 1910-09-07

wing riders" The blue vault of
heaven is fretted by thousands Of
roaring propellers and shifting planes.
"The bird men" are dreaming dreams
of cross-continent flights. The more
imaginative of them catch glimpses of
visions of transatlantic trips, faster
than the flight 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 song of coincidence and
security. Then something snaps; a
guy wire parts like a stretched fiddle
string, the roar of the engine breaks
and 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 terrible death.
When wireless telegraphy was in
vented 1t was but year or so u ii
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 thousand barns, warehouses and
backyard woodsheds all over the civ
70
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 even greater proportions. So
far most of the men who have met
death have been veteran aviators.
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 f1iers can be con-
structed will come a rush of amateurs
into the ranks of the aviators. More
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 analysis of the accidents of the
past two years shows that death
comes in 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 too near the pro-
peller blades. Selfridge 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 a 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 near Rome, and after few
short and successful flights at a low
altitude he tilted his planes upward
at considerable angle and shot into
the air for an ambitious trial. He had
barely reached height of 60 feet till
some of the intricate machinery gave
way and he was 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 a peculiar accident, one of the
many unexplainable ones that mark
the chronology of flight He was soar.
ing over a field near Boulogne, when
his machine turned turtle in the air