New-York tribune., 1918-11-22
The Future of Our Brdrnen

The war created a new race of men.
wings Now that the war is ended, are
those wings to be clipped? Will the boy
who has disdained the puny flight Of the
eagle and has steered his ship through
the vast solitude that lies between the
earth and infnity be content to return
prosaically to the office, the shop, the
field or the bench?
Hear this young English aviator de-
scribing to group of friends visit
he paid to wild tribe in the desert:
Owe were beyond Ell flasher, five
hundred miles west of Khartoum. They
had never seen wheels on earth before,
let alone wings and wheels in the sky.
They thought was Gcd and fell fiat on
their tumnlies-and all the while had
engine trouble"
A youth like that, who has taken the
wings Of the morning, is not going to
permit The mere signing Of a peace
treaty to tie him to earth with leaden
feet and make him move about among
the common herd Of men, always looking
upward like the timid hare when he had
known the joy of gazing downward with
the eyes of the falcon. Already there
are signs that the men to whom we have
given wings are not going to relinquish
them. In France there are those called
ferucnts d'auiation who indulge in wild
speculations as to the immediate future
OF flying. Such things as aerial race
meetings every week, international con-
tests from capital to capital and the
round the world championship" are only
few of their conjectures 1t is not
necessary to accept all wild dreams of
the enthusiasts to be able to foresee that
flying is to be a part of the busy ac-
tivity Of the world from now on. Busi-
ness and pleasure will find use for the
airplane. The aerial mail already es-
tablished in this country is only a be-
ginning. The announcement comes from
Paris that regular passenger business
is to be opened Immediately between that
city and London. Passengers will be
carried from one city to the other in two
and a half hours from hotel to hotel for
a fare of $75. Serious consideration is
being given to the practicability of car
rying certain kinds of freight by air.
The great weights carried by bombing
machines and the transporting of
piano across the English Channel by air
are examples of what can be done in
that line.
All the advance that has been made in
flying will not be known to the general
public until after peace is definitely
signed. The announcement from Wash
lngton few days ago that the United
States has been using at the front a
device that permitted an officer on the
ground to direct by word of mouth the
evolutions of a flier miles away in the
air is only one of the many inventions
that may be expected An obscure ref
erence in an English publication reveals
the fact that a stabilizer has been per-
fected of such great merit that an air
plane bearing a dead pilot "huttered to
earth from a height Of five thousand feet
with no more injury than leaf borne on
the wind"
These things are cublematic Of the
future of aviation. Take a good look at
the next flier you see who has passed
his apprenticeship and knows what it
means to meet an opponent in mortal
combat in the clouds, and ask yourself if
it is only fancy that his face has taken
on something of the look of the hawk
and the eagle. He is Of the new race.
In the hands of such as he is the future
of flying