The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-01-02
HOxSEY IS KILLED
Aviator Shoots Downward 563
Feet to Earth.
His Machine Whirls Over and
Over as 1t Falls.
OUT FOR A RECORD.
Planned to Reach an Altitude
Previously UneQualed.
Adevrse Air Currents Checked
Him at 7,142 Feet.

Los Angeles, Jan. 2.-The winds,
whose treachery Arch Hoxsey SO often
defied and conquered, killed the noted
aviator Saturday. AS If Jealous of his
intrepdity, they seized him and his
fragile flying machine, flung them
down out of the sky and crushed out
his life.
He fell dead upon the field from
which he had risen but a short time
before with a laughing promise to
thousands of cheering spectators to
pierce the zenith of the heavens, sur
pass his own phenomenal altitude rec
ords and soar higher than any other
man dared go.
Cross currents, whirled off by va
grant storm that f1oated in from the
sea, caught his biplane and shot him
downward 563 feet to earth. Catching
his frail machine in one of the spec
tacular spiral glides that are dan
gerous even in the calmest weather,
the warning winds sported with it a
moment, juggled it and then, as if
suddenly maddened, hurled it to the
ground.
When field attendants reached the
spot where the tangled pile of wreck
age lay, Hoxsey was dead His body
lay broken and twisted almost out of
all semblance to human form
All of the spectators in the grand
stand witnessed the tragedy, as it oc-
CURED directly facing them, on the
opposite side of the course. They sat
in awe-stricken silence until the an
nouncer gave the news through the
megaphone:
"Hoxsey has been killed
Then from the great grandstand
came the sobbing of women. who but
a short time before had clapped their
gloved hands to the daring aviator
ac he for his final AiOhf
Returning the compliments show
cred upon him by his feminine ad-
mirers, Hoxsey in gallant manner, had
promised to soar higher than he or
any other man had ever flown be-
fore.
"Of course, the success of this at
tempt is contingent upon the kind
OF weather find up there" said Hox-
sey, just before he left the ground.
''Some of the temperatures one en-
counters in the higher attitudes are
simply beyond human endurance. But
if can stand it and the motor works
as we'll as it has been working. I'll
come down with a record of $4,000
feet or more"
Swiss Cheese Atmosphere.
Even at that moment the wind had
attained a velocity that kept more
cautious aviators on the ground. After
he had ascended. it gained rapidly in
''Swiss cheese atmosphere, the most
treacherous meteorological condition
that man-birds have to contend with.
There is nothing by which it may
be known why Hoxsey did not go
higher than the 7,142 feet which his
Paragraph showed he had attained,
but he apparently encountered at that
altitude the same conflicting air cur
rents that finally overcame him. Not
withstanding this, and with the same
reckless daring he has displayed daily
during the last week, he descended by
series of spiral glides and was per-
forming one of his thrilling rolling dips
when his biplane suddenly capsized
in mid air and shot.to earth.
Over and over the aeroplane turned
as it fell, with speed so swift that
of all the thousands who saw the trag-
edy, not one could tell what effort the
aviator made to save himself. When
the wreckage had been cleared suf-
ficiently so that his body could be
reached, he was found planted firmly
in his seat, his arm around the levers.
The steel sprocket which drove the
propellers lay across Hoxsey's face,
the motor resting upon the right side
of his body. Every one of the ribs