The evening times., 1911-08-16

the delicate equilibrium Of the ma
chine and dashed the aviator to the
ground, his neck being broken.
Johnstone fell 500 feet under his
suit Of an equally unsupported defect.
Caught under the heavy engine In the
! ,sMoisant monoplane, he was carried
s0cf.. snto Lake Michigan and his body
~ -, ~ought to the surface until
Badger "a for three-quarters Of
an hour after he had been .extricated
from the remains Of his engine. He
did not recover consciousness and
died almost at once after he had
reached q hospital.
His death was the first serious ac-
ctdent Of the meet, although thirty
five flyers have dipped and glided here
for three days and experts say several
similar accidents have been narrow
ly averted.
Badger flew purely as an amateur.
He formerly drove racing automobiles.
He was the stepson of John Goettman
Of Pittsburg. and was Is years old.
He possessed an independent fortune
and gratified q we'll developed speed
mania. In the early days Of auto
mobiles he was among the first to
make amateur records ct Daytona and
Palm Beach. He was an intimate
friend Of Louis Strang, the automo-
bile race driver who died beneath the
engine of an automobile In Wisconsin
q month ago.
Through Strang, Badger became in
terested In aer0planes and both be-
came amateur aviators.
The meet here, which began last
Sunday. was Badgers first public ap-
pearance. The big mechanical sign
board, after his death, recorded that
he had flown up Just hours, 13 min
utes and 10 seconds. The flight which
ended his life had credited him with
possibly an hour more in the air.
He fell Just In front Of the center
of the grand stands and thousands Of
spectators were within few hundred
yards Of the accident. Hundreds
leaped the fence, fought past the line
Of police and rushed into the pit
where the wrecked biplane lay. There
was q near panic In the field and nu-
merous heads were cracked by police
clubs.
In the general audience, largely
sprfnkled with women. there was q
craning Of necks and q murmef Of
excitement. The injury was an
nounced through the megaphones and
five minutes later, while Badger was
on his way to q hospital, attention
and interest had reverted to the men
still flying, any OF whom offered pos
sibilities Of similar thrills and possi-
BILE fatalities.
Through his friendship with Strang,
Badger met Captain Thomas I. Bald
win. He bought an aeroplane outright
and received his first flying lessons
at Mineola, N. Y. Following this he
made further flights and his awaiting
enthusiasm grew. He practiced with
J.C. (Bud) Mars and decided to enter
the meet here with Mars, although his
entry was distinct from the entries
controlled by Captain Baldwin. - =
| He had planned to- finish the meet
here and then take the train to Wheel
ing, whence he wanted to make Q tri-
umphal flight into his home. Pittsburg.
He was entered at q coming meet In
Boston:
Captain Baldwin, after the accident,
at once withdrew all his machines
from the meet.
Badgers mother died recently and
80 far as is known his stepfather, Mr..
Goettman, Is his only survivor.
Johnstone's accident was due, ac-
cording to expert aviators, to a simi-
lar unsuspected flaw in the mechan-
ism of his monoplane. Just what 1t
was probably will never be known
as the engine is deep in the lake and
the wood and canvas of the plane
were broken and scattered by the tre-
mendous impact with the surface o,
the water.
Johnstone's actual fall was wit
messed by his young wife, although
It was not until half an hour later
that she was informed Of his death.
As the monoplane faltered in mid
air, then crashed downward to the
surface Of the lake, the young avia-
tors wife, who had been following
his flight closely, grasped a mechanics
arm and exclaimed in fear: ooh. oh.
pity; he's falling"