Evening star., 1927-04-27
DEATH Of FLYERS
TOSPUR PARIS HOP
Others Planning to Cross Sea
Undeterred by Fate of
Davis and Wooster.
BY ROBERT L. SMALL.

BY ROBERT Il. SMALL.
NEW YORK, April 27.-The brood
ing death which hangs so restlessly
over all aviators seems but to spur
the survivors of the science on to
greater deeds and nobler accomplish
ments. There is a sort of chivalry
about flying which leaves it's imprint
on all the men of the air. During
the World War it was only among
the flying men that chivalry was
known. The highest ethics of com
bat always marked the dueIs IN the
air and the opposing flying services
lost no opportunity TO pay military
honors to a fallen foe.
And so the deaths of Comdr. Noel
Davis and Lieut.. Wooster, while they
have shocked the entire world, will
in no way deter other airmen who
have set their hearts on a flight from
America to Paris. The rivalry among
the various crews who have been
tuning their motors for the past sew
,eral weeks in anticipation Of the big
hon across the Atlantic has been
marked by the best of sportsmansh1p
and the effacement of one OF the
crews, with the highest prospects OF
success, has saddened but in no way
discouraged those who are left to
"carry on
Stunt Flying Blamed.
The pity of many of the recent
deaths in aviation is the fact that
lives have been sacrificed in what is
aptlv termed stunt flying" The pro-
posed flight to Paris is distinctly
stunt at this stage of aviation. The
flight of Comdr. Richard Byrd over
the North Pole was a stunt" The
flight of American Army aviators
around the world was another stunt"
The good will" flight to Central and
South America was a stunt" with
military background.
1t is only through stunts" that
aviators feel they can keep the in
terest Of the public fixed upon the de-
velopment of aviation. The imagina-
tion of the people must be stirred. 1t
is no longer of interest to the man
in the street that the United States
mails are being transported daily and
nightly across the entire American
continent with the precision of rail-
road schedules. He takes that for
granted 1t is of no great public in
terest. though it should be, that the
scout planes of the Navy fly hundreds
of thousands of miles each year with
out the loss of a single life.
But the idea of a hop from New
York to Paris catches the imagination
of the people and seems to be of more
import than the safe and commercial
flying, which is growing day by day.
Stir Congress- Interest.
Aviators of the Navy and the Army
feel, too, that they must stir the in
terest of Congress by their stunts in
"a wv a
tions to develop the air services.
The toll of lives taken by the stunts
is the most lamentable feature of the
flying situation, but there appears to
be no help for it, and the aviators
are the ones who plan the
stunts and who are willing to make
the supreme sacrifice in order to blaze
the way in science which defies and
denies one of the ineXorable laws of
nature.
1t is a tribute to the dead who
have gone before them that so many
men continue to carry on in the air.
Every sacrifice of a life seems to call
for greater effort on the part of those
who are left behind.
Flying men of every degree, the
stars of the stunts as well as the un-
I<nowns who carry the mails through
the fair weather of Summer and the
storms of Winter, count their lives not
in years, but in flying hours. There
are some men in the Navy, Marine
Corps andn Army, who have sur
vived more than a thousand hours In
the air. One or two have at least
2 900 hours to their credit They are
the marvels of aviation. But though
they sometimes say they are living
on borrowed time,' they keep to their
work with never word of complaint.
Swayed by Adventure.
Although flying is making great
strides forward, it is still far from an
exact science. The great planes con-
for the long-distance flights,
such as the proposed trip to Paris,
find their greatest difficulty in TAX
ing off" with the heavy loads which
must be carried at the start of a
trip. 1t does not seem that the flyers
themselves paid enough attention to
the preparations for taking off.
Once the big planes are well aloft
and out of the way of possible obstruc-
tions such as buildings and trees, they
look and act as safe as an ocean liner.
Most of the distressing accidents have
occurde at the very start. Factors of
safety seem to have been disregarded.
Among flying men, however, there
is supreme confidence that Paris will
be made before the Summer is ended.
Other lives may be sacrificed in the
attempt, but the spirit of adventure
burns brightly and among the men of
the air there is no such word as fear.
Copyright. 1927