The Elk Mountain pilot., 1919-05-01

towns, would have been bombed from stations be-
hind the allied front in France
For Instance. Gabrielle d'Annunzio. the Italian
poet and aviator. succeeded In reaching Vienna
with n Caproni and in demonstrating to the vien-
nese that Italy had plane capable Of dropping
bombs on them. DAnnunzO did not drop bombs
on his famous raid; he scattered thousands Of
pamphlets informing the people of Vienna that
they We're supporting the wrong government in the
great 1t object lesson whose effect
was great in breaking Austrian morale.
Vienna was not quite as far from the allied lines
MS Berlin. The flight D'Annunzo made was some
thing less than one thousand miles. But he went
heavily loaded and returned successfully.
caproni Pledges His Future.
~we have vanquished our common enemy" Ca
proni says, but our task aircraft makers is by
no means finished. We must not stop. A perfect
system of airpanes will be n wonderful safeguard
to any nation as protection against out
bursts, on the part of irresponsible powers,
against civilization and humanity.
Personally l am going to contribute all my
strength to development Of the winged giant
which proved the most powerful and telling wea-
pom of our just and sacred war.
Our plant will be maintained at full strength
We Will keep the thousands of workmen who were
busy here under full strain when the armis-
tice ended hostilities. We will not go back under
any circumstances to that pre-war status, when
the workmen in plant numbered dozens rather
than thousands
Caproni came into the air game as an engineer
ing student in that period when the Langley ma
chine was launched under unfavOrable crcum.
stances and when the Wrights making their
wonderful flights with the first real airplane. The
idea OF flying fred Capronfs Imagination
II will never forget he said the other day
"the profound Impression created In me on read
ing newspaper accounts of the first Wright
flights From that time until today have dedi-
Gated myself to the science of flying"
Caproni will call his new plane the White
Eagle. The name is linked to strange prophecy
published in Rome, Italy. in 1916, which is at.
tributed to English monk of the seventeenth
century The prophecy asserted that In the TWEEN.
tieth century there would be great world war
started by the diabolical cleverness an emperor
of the country OF Martin Luther in alliance With
another emperor. both bearing their military
uniforms and their national escutcheons two
black eagles 1t added that civilization would de-
feat and throw out the barbarians, whose empires
would be divided into % states.
1t is inferred that the White Eagle is Intended
to typify the American bird.
The poet w. Lewis has made the event the SUBJ
iect of n poem which has been set to music The
whole was presented with beautiful aIleeoricaI
design to President Wilson when he was In Milan
If was n result of his admiration of the poem md
the design artisticay suggestive that Capron,
decided on the name of White Eagle for his new
and gigantic plane
II ia asserted that the aviators who will maka
the trip intend to follow the route of Columbus
across the sea- They will fly from Italy to Cadiz
thence to the Azores and from the Azores to the
American coast alightng in the neighborhood Of
Washington
Hundreds of men have lost their lives In the
attempting to make new records The list is long