The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-07-28
MANY AWATORS ARE KILLED IN AMERICA United States Has Highest Death Rate of All Nations WEALTHY AMATEURS Fifty-Three Fatalities Have Occurred So Far This Year-Thirteen Avia-
 tors Were Killed During
 Month of June
WEALTHY AMATEURS
From the Boston Transcript.

From the Boston Transcript.
 The figures Non fatalities indicate that America has lost far more aviators than her proportion. both as regards the num- Der of aviators and the distance they have flown. With barely a hundred licensed aeropiane pilots, no less than ss aeroplane operators and two passengers have been killed.
 On the same basis of comparison Eng land has made by far the best showing of any of the nations which have exten- sively used aircraft.
 Great Britain, all told, with nearly c5o licensed flyers. has total fatality list of just 14 two of whom perished in the double accident recently. England, moreover. is in It's geographical features much less suited to aviation than Is France, America or Germany.
 One explanation may lie in the fact that a large proportion of the English opera tors are army men, who are not forced to take up aviation as a means of support and increase their market value by reck- less and useless circus flying. There are also a number of wealthy amateurs who have taken up flying as a sport, and who today are making tours by aeroplane about Britain and across the channel Of these men Gustave Hamel is noteworthy example. During the present year he has covered thousands of miles in this man. re" carrying 0 passenger on all of his trips.
 Frances casualty list is the heaviest in point of number, although actually, in nrore tion. 1t is but little more than that of England, and far less than that of America. There have been up to date 70 fat lnties in France and there are today more than a thousand licensed French aviators, making journeys by air nearly every day In the year.
 Since January the proportion of acci- dents to the number of aviators shows an even greater preponderance in favor of France in comparison with America
 Seventeen French aviators have been killed and 12 In this country. France has more than 10 times America's number of flyers, while the distance covered there has been at least 10 and probably many times more than flown here.
 Exhibition flying, however, is no longer practiced in France. a fact which offers a nexcellent basis for the criticisms which have been and will continue to be levelled at the men in this country who are wreck ing an industry for their own immediate personal profit.
 Germany's victims of aviation have been 31 in number, a greater proportion than France or England shows. but much less than America. as Germany has nearly 100 military aviators alone. and approximate ly 300 licensed aviators altogether.
 The Italian fatality list, in view of the services to which the 16 military ma chimes in Tripoli are being put, Is re- marltably low. The number of deaths, all told, is but H. and of these only two have been killed during the present year. There has not been a single death in Tripoli, in spite of the fact that the war machines have not only been flying daily, but in some cases have even been under fire.
 Russia has suffered seven fatal accI- dents, Austria five, Peru, Japan and Spain two each, while the others have been scattered one each in Rofnania. Hol- land. Brazil, Belgium, Servia and Cuba.
 The total thus far is now 175, of which 53 fatalities have occurred since January 1. During the same period in 1911 there were 37. June of this year yielded 13 fa- tai accidents, but even that did not ap- proach the high record set in September. 1911, when no less than IS aviators per- shed. The present month, however bids fair to exceed even that ghastly record. for there have thus far, in the first five days. been five fatalities.