Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-05-27

a s NSSRSASo y III LIZ SWEEP S3I060& 1oW -
Wreaths for each toll, a charm for every woe"
AS one reads in the news dispatches that\Mrs. Harry
g. Hawker. wife Of the intrepid Australian aviator, never
gave up hope Of seeing her husband again, one realizes
what a balm was hers. In her home near surbiton. she
never abandoned hope. I'VE shall have good news to-
morrow" she said Saturday night, and on the morrow
came the word that her husband was alive and we'll
OF course. there is the hope that Hawker himself
had, the hope that he could fly across the Atlantic ocean.
To some his hope may seem dead. but it cannot be. for
Hawkcr is too brave, too strong a man to let one failure
rob him OF his cherished dreams. One needs only to re-
call the hopes the Wright brothers had in 1902 as they
"glided' over 500 feet. and in 1903. when they fitted their
first motor to a plane. 1t wasn't until 1908 that Wilbur
Wright was able to remain in the air for any length OF
time. On the last day Of that year. he astonished the
world by flying for two hours. twenty minutes and TWEEN
ty-three seconds. In those years between 100: and 1893,
the wrights had many failures. many discouragements.
yet they never abandoned hope. Then, there is the hopo
that the young Frenchman. Bleriot. hal when in 1905 he
set out to fly across the English Channel. His rival. HUI
bert Latham. had fallen into the sea in a similar attempt.
but Bieriot held fast. to his hope and attained success in
a trail craft
Hauker had hope, had faith, else he could not have
attempted to fly across the Atlantic. But however hopeful
he was. one cannot help thinking that he was a bit fool
hardy. Brave, to be sure, with the sportsman's love of
taking chances, but nevertheless foolhardy, for he at
tempted the flight in a plane that depended for its power
upon a mechanical device that was not certain. The At
lantic may be crossed Gin fact, no one doubts il, now in
a nonstop flight, but always there must be the thought
that stops and starts will have to be made. And to do
this, airplanes must be equipped with pontoons that will
Withstand. for some time, at least, the beatings of the
waves, the while the pilot or his mechaaician repairs the
engine. Hawker thought not of such contingencies. He
believed he could pilot his sopwith plane across the At
lantic, and he carried no pontoons. He had not gone very
far, less than 900 miles, in fact, when engine trouble
forced him to land upon the water, and it was impossible
to resume the flight. He and his mechanician, Lieuten-
ant Commander Grieve, were in the water an hour and
a half before they were rescued.
So, after all, the American navy adopted the wiser
plan in building a bridge Of ships across the Atlantic for
the NC filters, and they, be it remembered, had huge pom
toons on their planes.
While one finds joy in the report that Hawker and
Grieve live, one narvels at that other great invention, the
wireless telegraph. Had the ship which rescued them
been equipped with wireless instruments, all the anxious
days would have been saved. Such an occurrence helps
one to realize the thousands of lives the wireless has
saved. .a@Se