The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-10-13
Big Increase in Aviation
 Fans During State Fair
sx FRANK WILLIS BARNETT


 in order to carry the weight. They were just getting in the machine as left. The mother was standing on the side lines waving them fond adieu.
 i
 1 I never saw such interest in aviation. 1 was surprised beyond measure to find | how many different kinds. of folk had caught the fever. II was amused by the way one of the Scotch 1asses kept hang 1 ing around between acts trying to get one of the pilots to give her ride. am sure she would have gotten it had it not been that they were oversold and had no ! chance to slip in a free one even for such a bewitching and teasing little miss. { have cited these incidents merely to show that aviation is coming fast. |
 The Alabama Aviation company pulled off q good stunt. It seems that George 1 Keightley, the. manager of the Frolic, is an expert flyerand wanted a ship of his own. They Autographed to my good friend Harper Johnson of the Curtiss-J ohnson Aeroplane company, at Montgomery, to l rig up plane at once, and Sam liar rell and George hopped off about ' a. m. and made a rather hazardous flight owing to the low visibility to the capital city and were back on the Birmingham 1 fair grounds by D. m, George sailing his own ship and Sam returning in the
 one he went down in. Some nifty bit of business! l But this is only a part of the deal, l for George took his ship to Atlanta 1 yesterday morning and carried with him Ed Salter, the press agent of the l Johnny J. Jones exposition. which is billed in the Gate City this week, there by saving his own railroad fare and
 being on the ground ready to set up i the Frolic, which he manages, and
 also give Ed the chance to be the first l publicity snowman to ever make & l town by air. So everything is lovely and both are wearing smiles that won't fade.
 Guess who I ran across on Friday
 morning in earnest conversation with
 some of the pilots on the field? It was my Yiddisher friend Ben l. Rapport the irrepressible newspaper editor and ! owner. but also secretary of the Pick ems county fair, who was here to get OSullivan and Fearless" Tinney to do their act at his show. which, he says
 is going to be the best ever pulled off in his neck of the woods. and whats
 more. he has invited me over not only | to be the director of aviation, but to deliver talk on Things I Have Seen | When Up in the Air" He was a dele gate to the Red Cross gathering of man. agers and had just slipped out to the
 fair. which he pronounced to be the best ever.
 I was walking down First avenue and was crossing over to the Cham Der of Commerce when some one sang out, Hello, Doctor, come on and go to the fair" As was making my way to catch street car I jumped into the ! automobile, for it was O'Sullivan, who r l a r,o
 from destruction on Thursday after noon. He was as bright and chipper as you please, very different person
 to the one I had seen just after he
 had looked into death. I then learned \ something. He freely admitted that he was scared out of his wits. but said
 he: T knew that unless I jumped in
 ship and began to work I might
 never want to ride again, and so took
 up dozen passengers before dark" Just think of flying care free after
 such filtration with the old man who
 carries the scythe.
 Now comes the funny mart. for when
 Fearless Tinney showed up at the grounds went up and asked him how
 he felt after his experiences the aft
 ernoon before when he was blown out
 of the grounds and came down against
 the side of house. ITO tell the truth l and did not get to sleep until nearly day, as O'Sullivans accident got on my nerves and could not quit think ing about the awful plight he was in with his ship out of control and he fighting to regain his seat and get hold of the lever" He never worried l a bit about his own predicament, for
 he has been making parachute jumps from balloons for a dozen years or more.
 To see Locklear's daring exhibition
 and the magnificent flying of his pilots, 1 Elliot and Snort. and it but whets the
 appetite to see more and so there was
 a great throng out to witness it on
 every afternoon, and they got more
 than was on the bill on Friday, for
 after Locklear had finished his act he turned the nose of his machine upward and began to climb after sO'Suilivan ! who was circling high to get a proper altitude for Fearless Tinney to make
 his jump. Higher and higher they P circled until they looked like two birds : lined against the sky.
 T, I do not care where you have been or what you have seen in the way of .i beauty. but if you saw the stage set
 ting arranged by nature as a back | ground for the aerial exhibition or ? Friday Afternoon you need never covet n seeing anything moro beautiful. i. stood apart from the crowd and ii seemed to me that the glory of God ssj was round about us, for the clouds were piled mountain high. and the , hills but the frihges of His garments !. and the rays of the sun but the beam !. from His eyes. My what a picture |,
 made when Tinney cut loose and his
 parachute folded out and as he came slowly down the planes in which Lock- | lea and oSuliivan sat made circles 2 aboafs hitn
 Brt w=s 50 ,n brought down to eartr with a s., for 1 saw Tinney
 desc eifd Senlnd clump of trees and soon L.cclsis4r s down and said that he lad .tt 8 lew hundred yards be- yonc the unds fence. Shortly after rfSla fsan. after. a close swoor dowr came ap ST the trees and told
 me t at i4o Aad tton close enough tc see ! nsFt5 per led on a topmost boug.s aaa th4s hile he was unhur' Inc seemed ,e 9s g. bit out of humor lit was pars ol n duty as director o1
 aviatia.i fo pass aurse to the Aviators
 so ( srIner }e4res the Ford wheel of