The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1910-11-25
RALPH TOMBSTONE
FAILS TO DEATH N
BROKEN AEROPLANE
HOLDER or THE WORLDS REC
ORD FOR HIGH FLY
ING

Fatal Flight Was Second One During
The Day.-Morbid Souvenir Hunt
ers Swarm Over the Wreck Fight
inc For Souvenirs Of Death.
DENVER, Col, Nov. 1s.-With ont
wing tip Of his machine crumbled like
n piece Of paper, Ralph tombstone
the daring young aviator, holder Of
the worlds altitude record, dropped
like a plummet from height Of BOZ
feet into the inclosure at Overland
Park aviation field this afternoon and
was instantly killed. When specta'
tors reached hi mhis body lay beneath
the engine of the biplane, with the
white planes that had failed him In
his time Of ned wrapped about it like
a shroud. Nearly every bone in his
body was broken.
He had gambled with death once
too often, but he played the game to
the end, fighting coolly and grimly
to the last second to regain control Of
his broken machine. Fresh from his
triumphs at Belmont Park, where he
had broken the worlds record for al
titude with a fight of 9,714 feet,
Johnstone attempted to give the
thousands of spectators an extra
thrill with his most daring feat, the
spiral glide which has made the
Wright aviators famous. The specta'
tors got their thrill.
5 The fatal fight was the second
1ohnstone had made during this after.
noon. In the first fight, when he was
IN the air with Hoxsey and Brookins,
ne had gone through his usual pro
gramme of dips and glides, with the
machine apparently under perfect
control. Then tombstone rose again,
and after few circuits Of the course
10 gain height, headed toward the
foothills. Still ascending, he swept
back in big circle, and as he reach
ed the north end of the Enclosure he
started his spiral glide.
He was then at an altitude Of about
300 feet. With his planes tilted at
an angle of almost 80 degrees, he
swooped down in a narrow circle, the
aeroplane seeming to turn almost in
its own length. AS he started the
second circle the middle spur which !
braces the left side of the lower
plane gave way and the wing tips OF
both upper and lower planes folded |
Ep as though they had been hinged.
For a second tombstone attempted !
tt right the plane by warping the
other wing tin. Then the horjfied
SPECTATORS saw the plane swerve like
a wounded bird and plunge straight
toward the earth tombstone was
thrown from his seat as the nose OF
the plane swung downward. He
caught on one of the wire stays be
tween the planes and grasped one OF
the wooden braces of the upper plane
with both hands. Then, working
with hands and feet, he fought by
main strength to warp the planes
so that their surface might catch the
air and check his descent.
For a second it seemed that he
might succeed, for the football helmet
he wore blew off and fell much more
RAPIDLY than the plane. The hope was
however, for when about
900 feet from the ground the machine
turned completely over, and the spec
tators fed wildly as the broken plane,
with the aviator still fighting grimly
in its mesh of wires and stays, plung-
ed among them with a crash;
Scarcely had tombstone hit the
ground before morbid men and wo-
men swarmed over the wreckage,
with each other for souven-
frs. One of the broken wooden stays
had gone almost through Johnstone's
body. Before doctors or police could
reach the scene, one man had torn
this splinter from the body and run
away, carrying his trophy with the
aviator's blood still dripping from its
ends.
Frantic, the crowd tore away the
canvas from over his body and fought
for the very gloves that had protect
ed his hands from the cold. The ma
chine fell on the opposite side OF the
Geld from the grand stand, and there
were but few hundred persons near