New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-06-24
NILES DARES DEATH
FLYING ABOVE CITY
Airman Loops Loops and
Speeds Upside Down
as Broadway Gazes.
YOUTH LOSES HIS
CONTROL OF MACHINE
Crowds Shudder as Engine Fails
to Start-Aero Club Likely
to Take Away License.

In a Moisant monoplane, which es-
capped his control for seconds at
time, Charles F. Niles looped the loop
and backnopped seven hundred feet
above Wall ST. yesterday afternoon.
Thousands crowded the roofs and win
dows Of skyscrapers TO see him. The
Battery and streets of lower Manhat-
tan were black with onlookers, cram
ing their necks to watch the boy play
with death. Over on Governors
Island, where he started, a group Of
hardened officers gazed at him in won
der. This, as one Of them expressed
it, "was fight"
Niles rose from the island at $3.50
o'clock, glided up over Erie Basin and,
circling the waterfront OF Brooklyn,
back over the bay, past the Statue OF
Liberty and east again over the island.
He made the circuit twice, each swing
raising him nearly a thousand feet.
On the end Of the second circuit, while
over the Statue of Liberty, he began
his display.
The plane dipped sharply to gain
momentum, shot down two hundred
feet and curved up in an easy circle.
leaving the flyer head down as he sped
over the island. Then il rolled over on
its side, bringing him head up, and
the burr Of the motor was drowned in
the din Of foghorns in the bay below.
On the third circuit he swung 4
wider course, cutting far over Brook
lyn. When he turned, the wind, which
had freshened into a twenty-miler
from the southeast. bore him north
ward to Brooklyn Bridge. He turned
again, this time to the south. and
swept down over the Municipal Build
ing. with only four hundred feet to
spare.
over the Woolworth and past the
Postoffice he sped. as Broadway grew
black with crowds below him. Close
by the Bankers Trust he dived and
circled up again into loop. while on
lockers scurried into doorways, fear
ing the machine would fall.
Hangs Directly Over Battery.
He righted it and sent it straight up
into the sky, cutting off the motor as
it rose. For a second it hung motion
less directly over the Battery. Then
it slid backward on its tail, doing the
"backfop," as Niles calls it, back into
the horizontal. Again it dived, this
I time forward. The motor would not
start. and it seemed as if nothing
could save the boy from plunging into
the crowd below As the wind struck
the machine and drove it backward
/ bystanders turned away in horror.
But just then the engine coughed and
/ started, and the plane buzzed out once
more over the bay.
On the fourth circuit Niles riyalled
Beachey's dive. He cut off his motor
when directly over the island and
darted straight down at the little
group of officers VINO had watched him
start. The Moisant twisted slowly as
il fell, much like a falling arrow, and
the bystanders made for shelter.
When only n few hundred feet above
them Niles Strengthened the machine
out again and made toward Brooklyn.
On his last lap he rolled the machine
over sidewise- hardest trick Of
ALL" as he says-and then volplano 4
down close to the parade ground. Two
hundred feet over Fort Jay, which
edges the ground on the west, he
turned three sharp circles, giving the
crowd time to get out of his way, and
then glded gracefully to earth.
SAYS He Lost His Control.
Cool and unconcerned, Niles stepped
out of the machine, his forehead still
swollen from flying head downward.
He admitted frankly that the machine
often got out of his control.
'Itrl get out Of control for as much
as three or four seconds at time" he
said. "Then I have to let it dive. AMI
it rights itself. Flying upside down.
it's never wholly in control"
Asked whv so many flyers lost their
lives If machines "righted them
selves" Niles said il must be because
they lost their nerve, or because, not
being strapped in, their efforts to cling
10 their seats made control impossible.
He added that he was never nervous
except when landing, and then the
crowds made him So"
Alan r. iIawiey. president of the
Aero Club, said last night that Niles's
fight over the city would probably
cost him his license.
"Thc matter will be brought 20 the
attention of the contest committee in
two or three davs," said Mr.. Hawley.
at will. ] think, deal severely with
him. We have got to take measures
which will preclude the possibility OF
accident. and Niles will probably lose
his license temporarily at least No.
the wind couldn't be held a mitigating
circumstance; he had no business to
nut himself where the wind would
drive him over the city"
Among those who watched the fight
from Governors Island were Briga-
der General Robert X. Evans and Mrs.
Evans and Lieutenant Ralph Evans.
their son; Colonel Hahn. Colonel Mills
Major Cannon, Colonel Mallory. Major
Lawton, John w. Shaw. chairman OF
The Mayors Fourth of july aeronauti-
cal committee: Howard Henry. Dun
can Leverich and William Robinson,
also members of that committee.