The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1911-08-18
TWO AV|ATORS DIE.
TOMBSTONE AND w. r. BADGER
LOSE LIVES BECAUSE OF
FLAWS IN CRAFT.
BOTH WERE AMATEUR FLIERS
Former PIunges 500 Feet in View of
Wife, and Drowns.-Latter Ca
reens to Death in Front of
Grandstand

Chicago, Illinois. Two aviators,
William R. Badger of Pittsburg and
st. Croix tombstone of Chicago, both
young men, lost their lives at the
international Aviation meet here. In
dying, both revealed the frailty of the
craft in which two score more avia-
tors were curving and gliding about
the air, with scarcely pause for the
deaths of their contemporaries
Death in both cases was due to un-
explained accidents, probably the re-
suits of unsupported defects in the
mechanism of the machines and was
in no way caused by carelessness nor
lack of responsibility of the drivers.
Badger, a wealthy youth, careened
to his death in pit in the aviation
field. There mad been flaw in one
of the wings of the propeller of the
Baldwin machine he drove. Centrifu
gal force broke the propeller, upset
the delicate equilibrium of the ma
chine and Badger dashed 100 feet
to the bottom of the pit, his neck
being broken.
engine and was drowned as the result
of an equally unsupported defect.
Caught under the heavy engine in the
Moisant monoplane, he was carried
deep into Lake Michigan and his body
was not brought to the surface until
an hour later.
Dies on Reaching Hospital.
Badger lived three-quarters of an
hour after he had been extricated
from the remains of his engine. He
did not recover consciousness, how
ever, and died almost at once after
he had reached the hospital
His death was the first serious ac-
cident of the meet, although 35 flyers
have dipped and glided here and ex-
perts say several similar accidents
have been narrowly averted. Badger
few purely as an amateur.
This meet was his first public ap-
pearance. The big mechanical sign
board, after his death, recorded that
he had flown just two hours, 13 min
utes and 10 seconds. The flight which
ended his life lad credited him with
possibly an hour more in the air.
He fell just in front of the center
of the grandstands and thousands of
spectators were within few hundred
yards of the accident. Hundreds leap
ed the fence, fought past the line
of police and rushed into the pit where
the wrecked biplane lay. There was
near-panic in the field and numer
Gus heads were cracked by police
clubs. In the general audience, large
ly sprinkled with women, there was
craning of necks and a murmur OF
excitement
The injury was announced through
the megaphone and five minutes later
while Badger was on his way to a
hospital, attention and interest had
reverted to the men still flying, any
of whom offered possibilities of SINH
lar thrills and possible fatalities.
Craft Shattered by Impact.
Johnstone's accident was due, &C.
cording to expert aviators, to a SINH
lar unsupported flaw in the mechanism
of his monoplane. Just what it was
probably never will be known. as the
engine is deep in the lake and the
wood and canvas of the plane were
broken and scattered by the tremend-
Gus impact with the surface of the
water.
Johnstones actual fall was witness.
ed by his young wife, although it was
not until half an hour later that she
was informed of his death. His par
ents had left the field only few
minutes before. He was also an anna
teur.