The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1917-03-24
Sound Thought to Have
Been Made by Airplane
Also Heard Here
MENTIONED TO WIFE
BY ESTEYVILLE MAN
George Houghton Was in Woodshed
when Something that Sounded Like
Airplane Passed Overhead - Not
Likely that 1t Was Such a Machine

Whatever it was that disturbed resi-
dents of West Dummerston Thursday
night and gave them the idea that one
or more tairplanes were cireling about
the town was heard by George Hough-
ton, resident of Esteyville. who re-
ported to his wife as he entered the
house from the woodshed that he had
heard in the air what he believed was
the noise of an airplane engine He
saw no light and said nothing about
the matter publicly until after the re-
| ports from West Dummerston were pub
lished in The Reformer yesterday.
In spite of the insistence of those
who were attracted by the strange noise
and who saw the moving lights that
they must have been on airplanes the
probabilities are very strongly to the
contrary.
| A. G. Thurber of West Dummerston
said that one light which he watched
for some time resembled an are light
and that it moved up rapidly and then
appeared to maintain a level. He said
that it was apparently a long distance
away, but was moving rapidly, he
Judged. The other two lights were
smaller and at different points of the
compass and We're red. He heard no
Inoise, but was indoors all the time.
Airplanes, to maintain themselves in
the air, require speed of from 80 to
40 miles an hour and to mount higher
the pilot finds it necessary to describe
great circles. While, according to Mr.
Thurber, one of these lights might have
been making the required speed, there
seems to be no one who considered that
the light was moving in great circles
as it rose higher and higher.
If it were to be conceded that one or
more airplanes were in flight in this
locality Thursday night there are men
III the United States who are better air
men than the government experts ever
suspected. Since the European war
developed almost overnight wonderful
improvements have been made in the
construction of heavier-than-air ma
chimes and since hundreds of pilots now
drive machines on long raids at night
there are very few, if any, who are
able to manipulate machines at night
low in the treacherous air currents to
be found among the hills and valleys
! Of Vermont.
An airplane requires considerable
ground from which to get started in its
fight. The pilot also requires fair
sized space, reasonably level and free
from Instructions, upon which to alight
and it is essential that he see where
, he is going when making a landing.
i, Pilots who make night flights i'll air
planes are guided to their landing
places by a system of illumination pre-
pared in advance and understood by
!. the pilot.
The probability of such landing
: place being located anywhere within
flying range of West Dummerston oil
! Brattleboro is very remote. If there
:, is such there is no further need fol
Il Il the Vermont Aero club to seek a land
: ing place in the neighborhood Of Brat
! tleboro. 1t has been proposed by the
u club, in the interests of aviation, tt
select numerous landing places through
out the state and have them designated
so that pilots of the future would know
where they might land.
I Meanwhile the mysterious noise il
the air and the lights seen by severa
are mysteries still. If not airplanes
/ what? If airplanes, by whom operated
where from and what for?