Evening star., 1927-10-30
BY FREDERICK II. NEELY.

r L the automobile industry could
develop an automobile that would
prevent foolish driver from run
i ming into a telephone pole at high
speed, from sx:dding into disaster
on a slippery highway or interrupting
| the tranquility of a Sunday motorist
out with his family by striking him
amidships, the wheeled world
would indeed be safe.
| But as the bank accounts of the
automobile barons have not been de-
pleted in the least by road casualties,
no apparent effort is being made to
accomplish a, practical impossibiity,
so they continue to turn out new de-
signs and models annually. semi-an-
nually, monthly and weekly.
Anticipating a series of fatal. vet
preventable, accidents along the aerial
highways and byways of the land in
the next 10 years or more, the friends
| or the a1rplane are acting now to de-
| Velop ship that will be safe for
anybody to fly in; a ship that will
guarantee life and liberty to the pilot
| no matter how much he wants to vio-
late the laws of aeronautics, as they
do daily and pay with their lives as
well as those of innocent passengers.
Sales Not Decreased.
| When Wild Bill Jones goes out on a
| wet, greasy, highway and drives at
60 miles an hour while Tame John
Smith keeps the speedometer needle
at 20. no tears are shed for the former
when he skids off the road and kills
himself. Serves him right - /
wouldn't do it," is the universal COM
ment, and thousands of new cars are
! sold that very minute.
! But when WILD Bill Jones gets in
an airplane, takes off and pulls it up
| into an almost vertical climbing turn
and when the motor suddenly cuts
out Or falls dead and he crashes to
| the earth in flames, the average per-
son doesn't blame Wild Bill because
he doesn't know the pilot brought it
on himself.
Therefore, to prevent future Wild
| Bill Joneses, and there are many in
the making, from going out and kill
| ing themselves as well as their pas
sengers the Daniel Guggenheim Fund
| for the Promotion of Aeronautics, Inc,
| has promulgated the safe-aircraft
competition, with prizes totaling
| $150,000.
Aircraft technical authorities in
| Washington are keenly interested in
| the outcome of the competition.
Unanimously they declare that, after
all, it Is up to the industry to develop
| and produce the plane, and once this
| fact Is thoroughly understood, as it
| now appears to be. the objective is
not far away.
Good Pilots Have No Fear.
When the Guggenheim Fund an
| nounced the "safe-aircraft" competi-
| ton last April it did not admit by
| implication or expression that the
| present airplane in use'is unsafe. The
trustees know that pilots like Col.
| Charles A. Lindbergh, Lieut.. Jim
mie' Doolittle of the Army, Lieut..
| AL" Williams of the Navy or Lieut..
| Sandy" Sanderson of the Marines
| and hundreds of other military and
commercial pilots of equal ability do
not need a nurse to go along with
| them when they fly. To these men
and the large numbers they repre-
sent there is no safer means of trans,
portation in existence than the Spirit
Of st. Louis, Curtiss and Boeing pur-
| suit planes or Eaglerocks, Fokkers
Stinson-Detroiters and other high
| type commercial aircraft.
The reason for this attitude is that
| the pilots who fly them day in and day
out, over periods ranging from five
| to Il years, and are living to tell
about it, know the limitations of their
mounts; know the laws of aeronautics
and do not wilfully violate them. AT
the Same time they are so inherently
schooled in the art of flying that they
will not permit themselves to be
caught off guard. They are the mas
| ters of their planes at all times.
True, each Of the foregoing named
| flyers and hundreds like them, against
their better judgment, creep up to the
| brink of danger and peep over now
| and then. Lindbergh did when he
| took off almost vertically from Boiling
| Field in an Army pursuit plane after
his triumphant entrance to Washing
ton last June. Doolittle and Sander
| son each have flown upside down
across Boiling Field at an altitude less
| than 100 feet. Both have performed
barrel-rolls at that extremely low alti-
tude. Williams has dived racing a
| plane from 5000 feet. bringing a force
| against his tiny craft that was strong
enough in effect to undermine an
| Office building.
Lives Depend on Planes.
These pilots know better, and old
hands at the game stand by and shake
| their heads, saying, 'They shouldn't
do that" In the case of Lindbergh.
Doolittle and Sanderson, nothing
would have saved them had their en-
gines failed while in such extremely
hazardous attitudes of fight. Will
liams would not have escaped if his
plane had collapsed. They knew that.
but, being human, there comes a time
in their lives when they feel good"
and get little reckless. Seeing these
sterling performances of airmanship,
there are newborn flyers on the side
lines who want to go up Immediately
and emulate them. When they do the
inevitable happens. almost without ex-
ception.
Lindbergh and all the other expert
pilots with bird blood" flowing
through their veins can get out of
almost any reasonable difficulty, be-
cause long hours of air experience
have taught them the tricks. The
fact that their ship lands fast, rolls
along the ground after landing, has a
glldlng angle of a brick and requires
the whole State of Nebraska to get off
In, spins after stall or stalls on q
turn, matters little to these pilots. If
they would never grow old and if the
airplane would become petrified at this
moment with respect to further devel.
opment and refinement, aviation would
be safe for mankind if they alone did
the plotting.
But every newcomer in the field of
flylng may not be able to adapt him.
seif to the art of operating a plane
In flight with the success that has at.
tended the big pilots of the country.
In the old days it was "You either do
or dont'-a flying field Interpretation
OF the survival of the fittest.''
"Safe" Plane Is Needed.