The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1913-02-01

I'd ments and win. / will take to myself
the swiftness of the meteor and the
sureness of the seagull. / will defy
time the wind, the weather, the trackless wastes
of the sky and the ocean. / will make real the
dream of the dreamer"
But Grahame-White is a true Briton and as such
has a hearty dislike for the grandiloquent He is
quite content with y"I1l cross the Atlantic in
thirty hours"-as II the feat we're the most matter
of-fact performance in the woodland the chances
are that he regards it good deal in that light.
At first hearing it sounds like an idle boast,
but those who have followed the career OF this
eminently shrewd. clear-headed and capable air
man know that he Is neither boaster nor a Wis
ionary. If he says he will do a thing it is certain
that he believes firmly that he can-and believes
it because he has studied his facts and tested his
theories.
It is bit short look back to the beginnings of
the aeroplane and In the brief time that that
wonderful machine has been in the hands OF
men it has performed the very things that skep
tics have declared impossible 1t seems almost
certain that at time not remote someone VIII
make the perilous trip overseas. And why not
Grahame-White?
To the average earth-man who is satisfied
never to rise above the top stories of an ONCE
building the attempt even under the best OF con-
ditions. appears reckless to the point OF fool
hardness. Not SO to the aviator. Give me the
kind Of a machine I'm thinking Of" he remarks.
duration fyipg-pain sailing"
Just there lies the nub Of the question of air
navigation from Europe to American the ma
chimes. They must first of all have speed great
speed; they must have lifting capacity enough
to carry the required amount of fuel they must
have motors capable of standing the strain OF
terrific and stupendous distance, they must have
instruments that will locate the course with &C
curacy.
All those elements must have been considered
long and carefully by Grahame-White before ne
made his recent announcement. He must De
satisfied that he has aeroplane that fulf's all
the conditions. So far, little detail has leaked
out as to the manner of equipment he will use
II is known only that he is building machine
which will carry four engines. arranged In inoe-
pendent pairs and each rated at ESQ horsepower
He has said that he is convinced that ne can
ishow enough lifting capacity to carry the re-
ouired fuel and enough speed to rush him to
these shores in thirty hours
That may seem simple to the unthinkng, but
consider Roughly speaking. 1t Is 1900 miles
from coast to coast and at Grahame-Whites recK-
oning of thirty hours that means that he has
machine which he trusts for at least one hundred
miles an hour minute after minute without In
terruption.
What course he will choose has not yet de
yeloped He has the whole great ocean to choose
nom It has been limited that the steamship
lanes are the natural path for the adventurer
accidents. II he chooses that from Queenstown
70 Sandy Hook nghtship he must traverse 2.S0o
miles: II from Plymouth to Sandy Hook, 2-9S2
miles; II from Southampton to Sandy Hook
300; II from Havre to Sandy Hook, 3.170 miles;
and IL from Cherbourg 3,644 The Mauretania
has made the passage in four days ten hours and
)forty-one minutes. The aviator proposes to elf
at one swoop 6341 minutes from that record
To be sure there other roads which are
said to be safer. There is that which leads from
the Azores to the Bermudas. one that allows fol
two relatively short hops and a long one from
mainland to mainland. Then there Is that othe
one favored by those who have planned out thu
course not for an aeroplane but for powe
dirigible.
This second course is practically the same owe
which Columbus waited across by the kind.
trade winds centuries ago. From meteoro
logical standpoint 1t is said to be the best
Hes from Cadis to Tenerife, distance OF 80
miles: from Tenerine to Porto Rico, distanc
of 321s miles; from Porto Rico to Havana, dis
lance of 1924 miles; and thence to the main
land The course lies In zone varying littl
from twenty degrees north latitude and In tn
winter and spring offers fair weather and win
with a velocity of fourteen to sixteen miles a
hour.
The matter of wind. however, seems to hav
troubled Grahamewhte little. 1t is probabl
that he win select Of the northerly course
and it is probable that ne may fly even as IA
north as Labrador. BY choosing that as poin
of landing and Ireland point of starting. b
might reduce his distance by hundreds Of miles
Whatever his course. however he must hav
speed. Even at his own estimate Of thirty hour,
the nervous strain of guiding an aeroplane fo
that length of time without sleep would be te
rife and would increase immensely with ever
added hour.
Grahame-White has always been believer
the speed possibilities Of his air crafts. Som
tine ago he held that 100 miles an hour was n