Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-15
A Sporting Flight.

For the eleventh time in the history
of man an airplane has negotiated the
North Atlantic. Yesterday the three
gallant Frenchman who took their lives
In their hands for sportsmanship alone
landed safely in Spain after a thirty
hour flight from Old Orchard, Me.
Their goal was Paris, but lack Of gas
oline, q strong head wind and the
presence Of q Stowaway aboard forced
them down on the rocky Spanish coast
Their achievement, however, loses none
Of Its glory because they fell four hum
dred miles short Of their destination.
On the contrary, their non stop night
OF thirty -four hundred miles across the
Atlantic Ocean in less than thirty hours
will go down into history as mag
nificent sporting feat.
Since the tragic death of Nungesser
and Coli every flying man Of France
has probably nursed a secret ambition
to emulate the feat OF Col. Charles A.
Lindbergh. Although flyers realized that
nothing further could be proved by
ovsr-water trips In land planes, except
possibly the impotency Of man to COM
bat Nature when she is in an unsmiling
mood, the pure sport of the venture was
decided lure. The French govern
ment, however, cognizant of the diff
cultieS and harzards of such flights, has
frowned consistently on airmen at
tepontin0 tha waat uo rd uovaoa Armand
Lott, jr.; Rene Lefevre and Jean As
solanC were not discouraged by gov
ernmental disapproval. Lott, the back
er of the adventure and wealthy in his
own right, decided that he and his
friends should be the first to fly the
Atlantic in French plane.
The next step was TO order the ship
for the undertaking and some months
ago the three aviators with q gigantic
Bernard Six-hundred- horsepower plane
arrived in New York ready for the
supreme thrill. Ground conditions, how
ever, forced them to change their base
TO Old Orchard, where the two miles OF
hard-packed sand offered an ideal
natural runway for the Six-ton ship.
Thursday. after a long wait for good
weather conditions, they disappeared
over the horizon after a beautiful take
OF, and until yesterday afternoon, when
they rolled slowly to a stop at the edge
of the ocean which they had just
crossed, headed steadily for their goal.
AS for the stowaway aboard, whose
father jubilantIy chsrscterizes as a
hero" and who himself admits that
he cared nothing for the safety of the
others, but was seeking fame and for
tune, he Is simply another OF the
inconsiderate and dangerous smart
as her own. Hts additional weight in
the finely balanced structure OF the
plane was . menace TO the safety of
the take-off and his presence aboard
was, according to the aviators, the sole
reason for failure to reach their destina-
ton. Naturally having gotten safely
across in spite of the dire potentiaIities
OF his act the Frenchmen are inclined
not TO prosecute. That, however, Ia the
unfortunate part Of the whole proceed
ing. An example should be made Of this
young man which would effectively dis
courage others Of his ilk from at
tempting the same thing. Who knows
but that some Of the Transatlantic
planes which tragicsly met their fate
! In midocean were not forced down to
q watery grave by the additional weight
Of unexpected and undesired passengers?