Los Angeles herald., 1910-08-18
Ii BLANC VICTOR
IN AVIATION RACE
Makes the 485-MiIe Flight in II
hours, SIS Minutes and
SO Seconds
100000 WELCOME AVIATOR
DeIirious Spectators Seize Win
ner and Garry Him to
Minister of War
100000 WELCOME AVIATOR
ASSOCIATED Pressl


PARIS, Aug. 17.-fIalf Paris forsoolI
it's beds last night and remained in
the streets until morning to watch the
conclusion of the great cross-country
aviation race which was won by lie
Blanc in Bleriot monoplane Auburn,
also in a Bleriot, took second prize,
finishing short 20, minutes behind lie
Blanc, although his total time in COM
pleting the course was somewhat long
err.
LIE Blanc's flight fran Amiens, some
60 miles, was made in the same superb
style as the previous laps in the race
He left Amiens at sos and descend
ed at Issy in the suburbs of Paris,
hour and % minutes later, making
the total time for the ass miles of the
entire flight II hours So minutes and SO
seconds, an average of nearly 40 miles
an hour as the crow flies, without max
ing any allowance for detours or for
the time spent in battling with the
storm in the flight from Mezieres to
Douai last Friday.
Auburn. whose time from Amiens
was hour and 81 minutes, completed
the circuit in 13 hours 27 minutes IA
seconds. None of the other compete
tors completed the entire course,
though LIE Gagnieux, who was forced
to retire in the early stages of the race,
finished with II Blanc and Auburn.
sWooPS LIKE HAWK
There was a moment of tumultuous
cheering ais lie Blanc appeared above
Issy in the early dawn and from a
height of nearly a quarter of mile
planed down toward the earth and
swooped across the line like a giant
hawk
The authorities, in anticipation of
the excitement of the enormous crowds,
had cordoned the alighting place at
Issy with hundreds Of police, backed
by a regiment OF cuirassiers of long
experience in handling the Partisan
crowds on days of demonstrations.
Nevertheless, the spectators, in an ir-
resistible rush broke through the lines
and bore the victor on their shoulders
to General Brun, the minister of war,
who with his staff and other high Of
ficials had appeared at the finish at
this early hour to welcome the victor.
General Brun congratulated lie Blanc
in the name of the government, while
a military band struck up THE Mar
seillaise."
Before the cheering for lie Blanc died
down, Auburn in his monoplane, shot
into sight at the very point in the sky
where LIE Blanc had first been seen,
and following the Victor's wake crossed
the line and made an equally graceful
landing.
In close succession to LIE Blanc and
Auburn came LIE Gagnicux and five
army officers who had acted as escorts
to the contestants in the last stage
of the fight, the successful trip of
eight aeroplanes across the country
simultaneously and under prearranged
conditions demonstrating to what an
extent the conquest of the air has been
carried.
Such a gallery of spectators has new
err before been seen in Paris.
The Eiffel tower was chosen as a
point of vantage by crowds of specta-
tors and the towering steel structure
was black with people watching the
finish.
On the field at Issy, where the avia-
tors finished, 900 spectators had
gathered, the crowd including Prince
Roland Bonaparte, General Dalstein,
the military governor of Paris, and
hundreds of distinguished men and
women, who, when lie Blanc's mono
plane was first sighted as black
speck high above the city, were seized
with q perfect delirium.