The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1916-08-11
Seven thousand feet aboOe
Hyde Park, an American
girl looked straight ahead
and saSv 1.-THE roof of the
sky" from one of Eng
lands nepeSt 4uarplaneS

=: :" =: =. :: !. ]: !:
British military aero
UN plane. painted black. and
I'll especially designed for pur-
~ suing Zeppelins at night. |
MN flew across London and. Mt
80 a height OF 1000 feet,
looped the loop over Hyde
Park. and In the New York Tribune
Jane Anderson goes on to describe
her experience:
| was permitted to make this flight.
TO start from one OF Brltain's finest
nerodromes and see. spread in clear
coiored panornna one mile and a half
below me. the houses and the streets
OF the greatest city In the world.
~ The great field from which start.
ca The turf was broken by patches of
niack mud and the grass was beaten
down by heavy rain of the morning.
but. on the wooden runway, with
her wheels blocked and her black
planes siihouetted against the sky. a
hiplane was waiting. She was beauti.
fui-this machine. There was power
IN the sweep OF her wings; there was
power in the shining blades OF her pro.
peller.
Her two Lewis guns, of blue steel.
were mounted on galvanized brackets.
lacy were particularly businesslike-
those guns.
climbed aboard and was strained
In The observers seat, where sat,
was a wide seat. ana the fusllage
FORMED my arm rest. There was
plenty of foot space. Captain X. who
was my pilot. got into his seat behind
me- To my right anu above ME a
deaths head design had been painted
in white on the wing.
We circled the field. headed into
the wind and were OF. mean. We
Owed up into the sky.
When We left the ground we left IL
IL was good climbing. Ii was goo,
aud stiff. The black nose Of the BIZ
plane Rasa;ei sirnighr to the sun.
saw. swiftly. visions OF stalled mo
tor. OF rapid backward slide.
Below Us the roofs OF the hangar.
dropped away, and | saw. over the
whlrring propeller. the great curve Of
the Ihames-the wide splendid sweeI
gray water. spaune>l by bridges.
Where two streets met there WINS 4
} use with red roof-a big house SCI
little apart from long row OF cot
tages. While ] looked at this red rooi
the color Of II changed; from a cleal
yermllion II ! ,came mauye--one small
Clear square I mauve.
! looked as lin at the big house with
the red roof. But Il had merged with
the line OF little cottages; Il no longer
stood apart with a strip OF green sepa
rating II from its neighbors. hat
come up 5000 feet above little vii
lage which Is on the outskirts o,
London
! saw, far below me the white roads
crossing and recrosslng. and the brigh
green of the fields. But there wer,
no longer any people: there were n,
longer trans and buses and motors.
In this swift, upward climbing Their,
WAS no sense Of rising. Before me tn,
blades OF the propeller were iashinl
even In The gray Hight. | was filIet
with a sense OF security.
4 saw the rOads. the broad. smooth
roads of England, become whit,
threads on clear background o
green; from certain centers the,
reached out, spreading. then converg
ing anew
Then ! found that had come int
. bank 81 cloud. And. strangel
enough this white vapor increased
mySseri0usly. my sense Of security
There was an extraordinary impres
siou Of solidity. Of substance, after m
ioGrneytng through the clear hIghe
sir. Z watched. on the aluminium rlr