Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-11

- A<~A-~ ~ Ill July w ei'Ni 49,
Brookins. who Saturday flew 6,275 feet
up in the air in a Wright aeroplane,
fought against being made the lion of
Atlantic City yesterday. Indeed, he would
not talk about his fight until he was
fairly cOrnered. He couldn't escape by
making another flight, for the Wrights
allow their men to make no Sunday
flights.
The official figures show that Brook
ms reached height OF 6.115 feet. but
it became known today that he actually
went 100 feet higher.
Brookins' Own Story.
Here is Brookins own story as told by
him for the New York World:
l had no doubt whatever that / would
go over 5000 feet in the air Saturday
when l came back from my test flight.
We had made up our minds that that
was where l was to go. and it was to
see what the atmospheric conditions were
and to what changes / might have
to make in my machine that l took that
seventeen minute f1irt around l got up
nearly 1000 feet, and when l came down
i knew exactly what was going to hap
pen.
1 made few changes in the machine
and then l went up into gusty, confus-
ihS W tndt tdIle 1IOI1 dill uli cCtlOHS
at once in the horseshoe made by the
piers and the buildings along the Board
walk. 1t was hard to get my climbing
angle in those winds. l can't just tell
| that isn't to be figured out by theory or
experimenting alone; it's thing you
feel But ! got it finally after I had
| taken long swing around, and then l
really began to climb.
When l got above the swirls that lay
close to the sea l met a strong. steady
wind from the south. il was going
twenty miles an hour. and it carried me
the course. There / quartered back into
| it. When l went with it / was travelling
sixty miles an hour. and when / turned
l met wind that was going, theoretically.
eighty miles an -Four. Actually 1t was
| going about seventy-five miles an hour,
and that was the only time / was con-
scious of the wind. 1t took me out over
| the city. and | saw what l thought was
| a chain of little lakes and inlets below
me. I heard today that it was the Thor
| oughfare.
Steady Grind of the Climb.
went down to the other end Of the
course before l began that hard, steady
grind Of my climb. / had my climbing
angle then. and the machine was plug
ging upward like clockwork. She never
shifted her nose once, and l could feel the
cold air from the ocean coming up be-
meath me. l could see nothing but
graz mist below me, but IL it had been
the dead of night / would havc known
that l was over the sea. There was no
| surf to tell me that The pounding of my
engines and the whirr of my propellers
behind me killed every other sound and
after the first five minutes Of my climb
had no other sound with me. You
feel water below you, just as you
feel your climbing angle.
When i was over the land could see
the streets closing up. the houses on
either side of them seemed to draw
closer together, you know. The only
other form that I was conscious of was
great splashes of red There must be
over the ocean l had no backgrounds to
carry my sight through the mist. 1t was
| a great bucket of emptiness.
There was not even cloud in sight.
/ wished there was one, go l could get
an idea Of what / was doing. but had
nothing to show me, by contrast either
the direction the angle of my move
ment. There was nothing before me but
| the nose of the machine.
Sun Like Ball of Fire.
1 saw the sun about this time, great
ball of fire that seemed to be hanging
out in space. not a disk in the sky as
IL looks from the GROUND. w men saw
1t it must have been below the horizon
as the horizon appears on the earth. I
saw that first at Indianapolis, but it is
still a thrilling sight.
l was a mile high then. I'll not for
get ii very soon, either. The cold was
dreadful thing. My knees knocked to-
gether as fast as tEey would go, and l
could feel 1t on my cheeks and my ears.
MY teeth chartered till | Thought I'd
never get them stopped again.
The air was getting rare, too. l yawned
and yawned. and j painted as / breathed,
a sort of prolonged gasp every time /
inhaled. I grew still more conscious of
how utterly alone | was, and the pound
ing of the engine became an awful racket.