The sun., 1919-03-11
FROLICS HIGH OYER
WOOLWORTH TOWER
"Sun" Man, 1000 Feet Up,
Views City From Glenn
Martin Bomber.
FINDS MAPS ARE RIGHT
Speeds Back to MineOla at 40
Miles an Hour and Thinks
That's Slow.

THE weather is not exactly right.
and there's no landing field anywhere
near New York" remarked Capt. Roy
N Francis, u. s. A.. as he prepared to
Chamber up a rickety stepladder to the
pilots seat of the huge Glenn Martin
bombing plane. The wind, fierce and
gusty. whistled tunetul chorus to his
words through the wires and struts OF
the bomber. as 1t stood exposed on the
rolling surface Of Hazelhurst Field,
Mineola- But then" he added cheer
fully as he started upward. there's al
ways the river. l hope you boys can
swim"
The boys. four of them. two evening
and two morning newspaper men, fol-
lowed him up the ladder Their move
merits were somewhat restrained, for
they were swathed in wind proof and
very thick suits especially designed for
aviators, but with little or no regard
for that freedom of movement which
swimmers must possess. In appearance
they resembled closely both teddy bears
and mummles
Too Fast for Belt.
In the cockpit, in the fuselage OF back
bone of the ship. behind the wings, one
evening paper man popped. In front of
him Capt. Francis took his place at the
wheel in another cockpit; alongside him
another evening man found seat,
and way up front, leading the procession.
the two morning men squeezed into
another little opeping. There was some
small difficulty about getting the lifebelt
fastened about the two in front. The
man on the right wished resentfully that
the other man wasn't so fat. Finally, as
the belt simply wouldn't go. and Capt.
Francis remarked that probably it
wouldn't be needed, anyhow. 1t was per-
mitted to dangle over the knees of the
two passengers.
Crouching mechanics sprang at the
two propellers, one on either side of the
fuselage and between the wings, and
then the whirling started with an ear
splitting tumult. Slowly the machine
moved forward and bumped its way
over the muddy grass. moving far down
the field directly away from the wind.
Then it turned and headed windward
The man on the right side of the for
ward cockpit remembered with regret
that he had planned TO say jocularly just
before they rose from the ground:
Here's hoping we don't fall down on
the story
The engines were making SO much
noise IL was impossible to spring this
hShthearted witticism, and, anyhow. the
machine was fairly prancing as it
sped along the ground. Then the roar
of the engines deepened. the wind DEAD
ahead increased to a gale and the ma
chine stopped bouncing. The ground be-
meath tilted downward. Leaning into
the wind the voyager determined to
snow that he was not yet frightened
raised one hand out of the cockpit to
wave cheerily to the little group near
the hangar below, by way of proving he
was not yet scared stiff. The wind
snatched the hand abruptly and flung It
back into his face. Feebly he pushed 1t
over the edge again and waggled 1t once
Then he slowed IT carefully away in the
folds of his teddy bear costume and
began to look over the scenery.
Houses Painted on Ground.
Little white dabs Of buildings. fields
Of different colors and sizes and long
Incredibly narrow roads predominated
The whole scene. and there was regret
tably. absolutely nothing between the
observer and the whole scene, was abso-
lutely fiat. The trees and houses gave
the impression OF being painted on the
ground.
Far ahead the dingy brown of Long
gray clouds which rose from the earth
10 a point which was high. but not so
high as the plane. The engines con-
tinued to roar and the wind to thunder
on the earlaps of the helmet Gradually
the roar and thunder became part of
the natural order OF things and entirely
disappeared from consciousness. The
sense OF hearing being useless, was tenn
porarily annihlated.
The town, for the most part was a
discolored, uneven red brown, divided
very precisely by markings running north
and south, which proved to be avenues.
The plane roared over the tiny little
white viaduct of He'll Gate bridge. and
the avenues, too, became apparent as one
looked up and down the island. But the
city was disappointment. II was moth
ing but fiat, ugly, dirty plane with a
depression in the centre, also entirely
level, which was Central Park. The
boosted skyscrapers were squat white lit
lie piles which would he crushed into
powder II the mighty flying machine
should drop down onto them. There
wasn't one in the lot, not even the Wool
worth Tower. which stood up straight.
and the clock on the Metropolitan tower
was a miserably small, useless thing
which could not be seen.
The observer descended with the firm
belief that this particular plane. while
steady enough. was a bit too slow to do
any real travelling. 1t had taken half
the day to get to New York and back.
Time, forty minutes" announced an
amateur timekeeper as the voyagers slid
down the ladder. The earth had
springy sensation it had lacked before
the flight.
40 MtrS<Ian Hour. .''
And then Capt. Francis remarked that
they had made the return trip pretty