Evening star., 1922-10-08


M AN is destined to take to the
MH air, for the simple reason
that all that which Is ade-
- ouately conceived can be
achieved. He has long aspired to ny
and aspirations are heralds Of ac-
complishments.
During the time from earliest re-
corded history. when men. tried to
initiate the birds with crude contrap-
tions made of myriads OF feathers,
down to the first indication of scien-
tific procedure, as shown in the
sketches Of Leonardo da Vinci, we
have the period OF incubation-the
CESSATION of the conception Of human
flight.
This great urge to fy expressed It.
self even in the Hawaiian natives
more than a hundred years ago by
their construction OF huge aerial RATS
out Of light beams and grasses. which
they pushed over the edge of cliffs
sometimes a thousand feet high, on
which the venturesome aeronaut
moved about dexterously to maintain
the balance as it glided down into
the sea, the worst that generally hap
pened being a rather hair-raising
dive. The story that comes down to
US through successive generations
is that many competitions were held
by the natives, In which quite exten-
sive glides into the sea were made.
- -
IRON the time Of da Vinci to the
period Of the Wright brothers
and Langley in the United States
Lilienthal in Germany and Har-
greaves in Australia. this new child
of the human race struggled to learn
to walk-strove to gain the mastery
of the secrets of sustentation and
balance.
Then one day Mother Nature was
able to relinquish her hold on the
hand of aspiring man. He discovered
how to balance, and co-incidently there
came the strength in the limbs-the
power: that is. the internal combustion
engine.
With ever-growing vitality the
child drew on the energies of Bleriot
Sopwith, Curtiss, Fokker and others
for his growth. Then the great woe
brought him to maturity.
Since the close Of the world war the
winged youth has become well nigh
detached from the mothers apron
strings: has become virtually inde-
PENDENT, ready to take his place fully
in the world of affairs as soon as he
Is called upon to do 50. From the
standpoint of practical engineering
and material facts the dream Of the
ages Is today an objective reality. An
American writer in Europe said that
flying from London to Paris is almost
as breath-taking as a game of au-
thors. but not quite. He left London
in a French plane with his heart in
his throat. Two hours later he was
relieving the monotony by reading
jokes in a London weekly. He stated
High above the clouds the scene re-
sembles huge fields Of icebergs. We
sat in wicker chairs. and the only
discomfort was cold feet. which. of
course, may not have been caused by
atmospheric conditions. One is per-
mitted to smoke. Once in q great
while the plane dips but generally IT
sails along more smoothly than an
express train. The farmers never look
up as the planes ny over the fields OF
France. Airplanes are old stuff to
them"
4
THE question ITO Fly or Not to
fly" in a wholesale manner simi-
larly to travel by railroad. steamship
and automobile fs now with each ma
tion solely a matter Of the psychology
of the people concerned. Nature has
yielded her secrets and the present
battle-ground Is in tho mental arena
Of the mass Of the people. 1t is a
fight between the spirit Of progress
and the forces Of inertia-a conflict OF
habit and prejudice against the in.
telligent perception Of the advan.
tages of aerial travel.
1t Is by observing the way in which
a people react between these two in
nuences, progress on the one side and
prejudice and inertia on the other
that the status OF nation can be de-
termined. Will America rise to ths
occasion and continue in the van
guard Of human progress?
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