Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1913-02-15

I'D ments and win. / will take to mysel
- the swiftness Of the meteor and thu
Of the seagull. l will defy
cine, the wind, the weather, the trackless wastes
OF the sky and the will make real thu
dream of the dreamer
But Grahame- White is true Brton and as sucl
has hearty dislike for the grandoquent He II
quite content with: III cross the Atlantic il
thirty hours"-as if the feat were the most matter
of-fact performance in the woodland the chance!
are that he regards it good deal in that light
At first hearing, it sounds like idle boast
but those who have followed the career of this
eminently shrewd, cear-headed and capable air
man know that he is neither a boaster nor a Wis
fonary If he says he will do thing it is certain
that he believes firmly that he can-and believes
1T because he has studied his facts and tested his
theories.
1t is but 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 will
make the perilous trip overseas. And why not
Grahame-White?
To the average earthman who is satisfied
never to rise above the top stories of an Office
building the attempt under the best of con-
ditions, appears reckless to the point of fool
hardness. Not so to the aviator. Give the
kind of machine I'm thinking Of" he remarks,
land the transatlantic trip would be just so much
duration hying-plain sailing"
Just there lies the nub of the question Of air
navigation from Europe to Amerca-in the ma
chimes. They must first of all have speed great
speed; they must have lifting capacity enough
Go 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
curacy
All those elements must have been considered
long and carefully by Grahame-White before he
made his recent announcement. He must be
satisfied that he has aeroplane that fulhs all
the conditions. So far, little detail has leaked
out to the manner of equipment he will use.
1t is known only that he is building a machine
(which will carry four engines, arranged in indie
pendent pairs and each rated at $50 horsepower
He has said that he is convinced that he
show enough lifting capacity to carry the re-
quired fuel and enough speed to rush him to
those shores in thirty hours.
That may simple to the unthinkng, but
consider. Roughly speaking, it is 5000 miles
from coast to coast and at Grahame Whites reck-
,onIng of thirty hours that means that he has a
machine which he trusts for at least hundred
miles an hour, minute after minute without in
corruption
What course he will choose has not yet de-
Veoped He has the whole great ocean to choose
from. 1t has been limited that the steamship
lanes are the natural path for the adventurer
TO give some measure of protection in Of
accidents. If he chooses that from Queenstown
TO Sandy Hook lightship he must traverse $500
miles III from plymouth TO SANDY HOOK, 2962
miles; If from Southampton to Sandy Hook,
3,I0O; If from Havre to Sandy Hook, 3170 miles
and If from Cherbourg 3644 The Mauretania
has made the passage in four days ten hours and
forty-one minutes. The aviator proposes to clip
at one swoop 6,341 minutes from that record.
To be sure there other roads which
said to be safer. There is that which leads from
the Azores to the Bermudas, one that allows for
two relatively short hops and long from
mainland to mainland. Then there is that other
one favored by those who have planned out the
course not for aeropane but for a power
dirigible
This second course is practically the same over
which Columbus was waited across by the kindly
trade winds centuries ago. From a meteoro-
logical standpoint 1t is said to be the best II
lies from Cadiz to Teneriffe distance Of S07
miles; from Tenernfe to Porto Rico, distance
of 9219 miles; from Porto Rico to Havana dis
tance Of 1,124 miles; and thence to the main
land. The course lies in a varying little
from twenty degrees north latitude and in the
winter and spring offers fair weather and wind
with a velocity OF fourteen to sixteen miles
hour.
The matter of wind however seems to have
troubled Grahame-White little II is probable
that he will select of the northery courses
and il is probable that he may fly far
north as Labrador BY choosing that a point
OF landing and Ireland as point of starting. he
might reduce his distance by hundreds of miles
Whatoever HIS course however. he must have
speed Even at his estimate OF thirty hours.
tho nervous strain of guiding aeroplane for
that length of time without sleep would be ter
rife and would increase immensely with every
added hour
Grahame-White has always been believer In
the speed possibilities OF his air crafts. Some
-'me ago he held that 100 miles an hour was no