Imperial Valley press., 1914-02-16


believe the proposed aeroplane flight
around the world this summer, while
it will be a marvellous demonstra-
tion of human progress and efficiency,
is nevertheless feasible.
The directors of the Panama Pa
cific exposition at San Francisco are
assured of the cooperation of all the
great nations over whose territory
the monoplanes and aeroplanes will
whirl.
Feat after feat of endurance must
be performed by the aviators who ira
verse the broad American continent,
make the great jumps from island to
island of the North Atlantic, pursues
the well travelled air lines of Eu-
rope, safely passes over the bleak
and forbidding wastes of Siberia, and
fringes the almost uninhabited coast
line of northern Asia and Alaska.
But each of these feats have been
exceeded already in the air records
now on the books. Now all that is
needed is the combination of them.
The performance of one great air
Journey after another means luck,
enormous luck, to greater degree
than in almost any sporting contest
ever organized.
Several aviators have signified their
intentions of entering. They are Will
line to take the risks. They are not
actuated by the desire for gold, for
i even the successful contender, who
will win the $150,000 first prize and
also the $4,000 offered by Lord
Northcliffe for the first crossing of
the Atlantic, will find his S200,00O
and perhaps more eaten up by the eX-
penses of his undertaking.
1t is quite certain, however, that
plenty of men of large fortunes and
sporting proclivities will be found to
finance this peerless event.
The eyes of the world will be upon
the brave contenders, even more than
they were upon the pioneer aviation
racers in that first meet at Rheims
in 1908.
The attention of the close students
of the race is centered upon the prob
lem of the Atlantic. After passing due
east from Frisio across the Sierras
through Reno. New, Cheyenne, Wyo.
Kansas City, st. Louis and New York
the aviators will coast along the sea
board to Belle Island, between New
foundland and Labrador. Here the
+, fight across the Atlantic will begin
The flyers will probably head for
Cape Farewell. Greenland, 6l0 mile
: away. From Cape Farewell TO Ice.
land the distance is 670 miles ans
from Iceland to Stornaway in tht
e. Hebrides is $40 miles.
Three enormous leapS-6l0 miles
go and $40 miles. None of them IN
surmountable in itself. But to IN
the bulls eye three times in success.
sion-there's the rub.
, Then these seas are not always a.
hospitable as the Mediterranean
which Roland Garros has now crossed
twice. There are fogs and winds anc
rocky landing places. ;,
But if a row of warships patrols
the course, lent by their governments
in the interests Of science and human
progress, the risk will not be greatel
(for instance) than that taken by ths
late John b. Moisant when he set OF
in an untried machine with a fog II
his face to hy from Paris 10 Londoi
at a time when the channel crossing
alone was considered almost a mir
acle.
Compared with the Atlantic cross
ing, too, the rest of the journev seems
The proposed route is by way o
Edinburgh. ondon, Paris, Berlin
Warsaw, St. Petersburg, Moscow an.
the trans Siberian railway 10 Man
churia and then south to Nladivostok
The next lap takes the aviator aeros
the sea to Corea.
He must then cross the Japan Sc.
to Kobe and Toxic. turn north &
Kamkatka and travel along the coas
either to East Cane or 60 the Aleu-
tian islands. The distance between th'
two continents here varies from 3l
to 200 miles. From Alaska the cours'
will be southwark to Vancouver. sc
attle and home to San Francisco.
The aviators who hesitate abou
pronuouncing the journey possible y
the present stage of their art call at
tention to the distance-28,000 mile
The successful flyer must travel al
average of more than 300 miles :
dav for four months Will it be pos
sible to accomplish the trip in a few
|. months of summer of the northern
regions through parts of the cours,
lie? Vedrines was five weeks do,nl
the $500 miles from Paris TO the Pyr
amide, flying at an average of onl!
100 miles daily
This explains clearly how great,
the proposed journey would outd'
anything yet accomplished. Beside.
the notable flights already mentioned
Oscar Bidder has flown over prac
tically everv high mountain in Eu
rope, Garros has made a flight from
Marseilles to Paris without stopping
Brindeionc de Moulinais has youreC
the capitals of Europe and two be
sides VedrineS have reached Egyp
from France Yet these journeys pal,
before the difficulties of the race
around the globe.
4 1t is to be noted, however, that tn
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