Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-11-05
FLYING 10000 MILES.
Expert Aviator Who intends to Add
Other Thousands.

man: Flown for four years? Then.
thank God you're alive sir, and don't
| fly again.
| A view, no doubt that might rep
| resent the opinion of many. But / do
not purpose to retire. Instead of pro-
! fitting by experience, l hope TO pilot
! aeroplanes for more thousands of miles
| through the air.
| How have ], IN pursuit reekoned
| so perilous. preserved myself intact?
LUCK is the natural answer of the
| layman: and If had to despond mere
| ly YES" or no" should be obliged
| to say yes" But qualifications are
needed, and important ones, too.
| In the category of impending acct
| dents which examination fails to re-
veal should be placed that which be-
| fell Mr.. Lorraine. when flying the Irish
/ sea. His machine, like mine, had been
pronounced in perfect trim; but when
n waste of water lay below and no
| ships in sight, his engine '.pop-pop-
ped" and ceased its work Commence
| irg to plane down, he wondered how
/ long his Diplane would remain atoat,
| But then, the engine, which was still
| turning slowly, began abruptly to fire
! again and he flew ahead once more.
| Thrice did it play this trick, stopping
merely to start again, and giving its
pilot, each time, the foretaste of a
| watery plunge. And then at last
when the airman was close upon the
| Irish shore, it actually stopped for
| good The. machine fell into the sea
| and Mr.. Lorraine completed his jour-
/ ney with hundred yards swim. This
eccentricity of the engine had, 1t was.
/ found. been due to the presence in the
| petrol tank of some loose pieces of
/ solder-relics. quite evidently, of its
| making; and these, with the swish
/ TO and fro of the petrol in the tank.
| as the machine rode the gusts, had
| momentarily blocked the mouth of the
! outlet pipe only to be washed out
| again. In the end, as might have
| been expected, fragment damned it
self in the orifice and refused to come
1 out: and it was then that the motor
j failed in earnest.
i Once only, | think, when a motor
has stopped in fight. have l felt that
|. intake of the breath which probably
represents the sensation, having your
heart in your mouth. 1t happened
I during my second London to Man
chester flight. Pursuing the veto
rious Paulhan, / determined to make
u
unheard of exploit and assembled from
the little village of Roade, some go
miles from London. Paulhan being so
far ahead of me as Lichfield 1t was
! pitch dark, and / rose into a vague
black void, nothing showing in front
, save the outline of my elevating plane.
Soon, however, some bright specks
i twinkled far below; they We're the
lights of the local railway station. At
this moment my motor. which had
Il been firing smoothly. splnttered sew
cral times and stopped. Mechanically.
Il tilted down the machine, it being the
u only thing to do, and Owed toward the
! shrouded earth with not the vaguest
r notion of where | should aleht, or
Il what obstacle I might strike when 1
i did so--house, tree church or WALL And
!; then, as unexpectedly as it had stop
ped. and while | was seeking in vain
s to pierce the pail through which I was
| speeding, the engine resumed its task.
/, But such an experience. though it
r lasts bare two or three seconds is
| not readily forgotten i'll 4a.s
= The risk of engiRen failure, while in
/, fight. was ever-preserit in the mind of
the pioneer. But the pilot today In not
Il apprehensive, even when over noun
{ tains %. seas, modern motors, indeed,
, have a reliability which was undream-
ed of year or so ago. When Bleriot
, flew the channel he did so in dread
THAT his engine might stop at any mo-
!. ment; ii was thought miracle, in
) fact, that it should run without break
| down for &c minutes. The late Hubert
Lathilm's-one may recal--let him
down into the channel upon both his
| attempts.
But nowadays the cross-channet
{ fight is made 50 often, and without
0 mishap, that it has ceased to attract
a more than casual interest. Instead
: of descending involuntarily on the tops
$ of trees and houses, and into rivers
! and seas pilots today have almost as
0 /, much confidence in the engines OF their
t I aircraft as in those of their motor cars.
4 AT first, built with extreme iShtness
81 and running continually at high Speed
: aereplane motors were always In tIou-
f F, ble-overheating, bursting cylinders
: or breaking some small working part.
6 In their experimental stage. in fact
: they were nothing more than motor
, | car engines, ruthlessiy lightened. But
now experience has taught their build-
= ers lessons They produce a piece OF
mechanism designed especially for the
air, which is light where weight may
Il he spared, and strong where practice
has shown that heavy stresses fail
Ri There is no need, though, to limit
FL ones self to a single motor when ny
!, ing. Riplanes have been equipped, al
5 ready, with q power plant comprisihS
4 | two engines: and a large waterplane
has Gown with three With such dual
or treble motive power, should one en-
CINE fail, the other will maintain the
. machine in fight. When commercial
t | aeroplanes carry passengers and geoos'
8 as they will by a process OF deVeiop-
e ment, engines in series will be htteu'
IL and mechanical breakdown become al
t most Observation-Disclosures Weekly.
: How far back in ones life can one
! remember? Herbert Spencer useu 70
2 recall faint pictures of playing IN the
{ garden with sister, year ms JUN
!. 20 rk.s