Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-11-07
Landscape Loses Charm
in Long Aerial Trips
[London Correspondence of the
Christian Science Monitorl

tLondon Correspondence of the
Christian Science Monitor1
l have travelled by the new air
service between London and Paris
both ways, and the moment seems
opportune for a frank discussion or
the pleasures and miseries (for
there are both) of air travel. can
claim to be u veteran, for / have
been round and about in the, air
pretty constantly since the early
part of 1907. For that very reason
1 (and others like me) may be apt
to take too much for granted, and
fail to understand the public, now
approaching practical flight for the
first time.
Frankly, does flying hold out any
pleasure for the average man and
woman? Take, first of all, the
scenery. It must be admitted that
terrestrial scenery loses most of it's
charm seen from above. The beau
ties of English dales and old world
villages are not visible; although
for this there is some compensation
in the easy evasion of the ugliness
of Londons suburbs and those vast
stretches of regions that are neither
town nor country.
Travelling by air one soon be-
comes weary of the slow-moving
panorama of fields and woods. At
a height of a few thousand feet,
even though the speed be 100 miles
an hour, the view passes so slowly
that there is no real impression of
speed, one of the consultations of
railway and motor car travel. OF
course, neither by train nor by car
can the beauties of the country be
properly enjoyed. You can rarely
get a chauffeur who will consent to
go slowly, no matter how lovely the
countryside; and he chafes If he is
told to stop for anything except
meals.
On the other hand, by aeroplane,
unless the sky be cloudless, there is
a new world of aerial scenery re-
vealed, which is sometimes of sur
passing grandeur and infinite, va
riety. During the early days of the
new service travellers had rare feasts
for the eye. Sixty miles of cloud
land north, east, west and south;
black transforms here, gigantic, tum-
bled mountain ranges of dazzling
cloud under the sun there. a sky
of deep liquid blue in places. In q
few minutes one passed from sur
roundings of beauty to regions of
gloomy, almost overwhelming gran
deur; and then back again to fairy
land. For, in the air. among the
clouds there is the foreground"
that gives n realization of speed.
On one occasion for miles over a
field of tumbled snowy clouds the
shadow of the aeroplane upon them
was surrounded by a rainbow ring
what ballonists call q glory"
One never tired of watching it,
changing size incessantly, rising and
falling, seeming to gambol over the
pillows of cloud like a frail boat in
heavy sea.
The principal drawback of aerial
travel at present is the noise of the
engines, which the average passen-
ger certainly dislikes. 1t will not
be long before this is overcome; and
already some of the new types of
machine provide for it's reduction
and place the passengers in a posi-
ton where it is not overpowering.
It is easier to write in most pas
senger airplanes than it is in a rail-
way train; but most of the cabins
are rather too stuffy. In the large
ones there is plenty of room to
walk up the gangway, but in some
of the smaller ones the passengers
are very cramped.
At present the supreme gain is
that OF getting to the destination
quickly. The airplane beats railway
and boat hollow; and erelong the
advantage will be even greater. The
prospects are good, and as far as
the regular London-Paris service is
concerned, there is reason to expect
that even during the winter an ef-
flciency of over 80 per cent will be
attained.