The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1932-05-21
MAAIR PATHSEsA
TGLORY ~
By DEXTER H. TEED
EEA Service Writer

&N1lfA 0CNvANG vNAHNCh
"a magnificent feat" the avia-
ton experts said.
It was middle June, 1928. Like
a great bird the plane, Friend
ship" had dropped out of a sum-
mer haze and had come to rest
in q field near BURY Port, Wales,
England. The tall woman who
climbed out of one cockpit was
Amelia Earhart, the pilot was Will
mer Stultz. The third person
was Louis Gordon.
She was the first woman to fly
the Atlantic. Stultzs had been a
great feat of flying because he
had come down only a few miles
from his objective.
And when you remember that
they took off from Newfoundland
with a fog bank in front Of them
and knitted their way blindly across
the wide reaches Of the unchar-
tered Atlantic the praise Of the
experts was justified.
It was cropping flight, but
Stultz Unanswered his craft 30 ex-
pertly and checked his instruments
so closely he did not need sight to
aid him. The plane broke through
scudding clouds In those last mo-
ments in the air-and Stultz, for
all practical purposes, had reached
his goal rs unerringly as a carrier
pigeon. From all angles 1t was
O perfect flight.
Amelia Earhart Is still flyer.
But that isn't all. Even when she
10 flying an aptogyro, her latest
hobby, she liz back home in New
York most of the time. In Novem-
Der, 1880, she married George
Palmer Putnam, the publisher and
since then she has been primarily
o housewife.
Before she became a famous fly
err she did social service work in
Boston. There she learned the
household arts: how to cook and
do the things a good housewife
must do. And her husband, who
should know, says "she Is good
cook"
Gordon stu Figs
He encourages her to fly. Even
last summer when she cracked up
in an autogyro at Detroit his con-
fidence in her was mistaken and
Of course she still believes in her.
SELF still believes In flying.
Stultz and his mechanic, Cor
don, paid a touching tribute to the
memory Of that intreprid flyer, Sir
John Alcock, when they placed
wreath on his grave---and Eng
land applauded and appreciated.
Soon, after his return to Amer
lea, Gordon married Anna Bruce
of Brookline, Mass, and the mil
lions who had cheered him laugh
ed Good-naturedly when he lost
the engagement ring on the eve
of the announcement. Since then
he has been working as an expert
mechanic and a pilot around Chi
Go and in the east--but who re-
calls him now?
Stultz's Tragic End
Wilmer Stultz came back to
fame and good position as a pill
OF. Thcn one day in July, 1929.
he took off from Roosevelt field
with two passengers. No one knows
exactly what happened, but sud
denly the biplane he was flying
went into spin. The spectators
watching weren't even then unduly
like Stult.. could bring a plane out
of practically any spin.
But the plane quivered, nosed
ONck ahu AAOPpSN AAS oSVAS.
Stultz tried to straighten 1t out
but could not. It crashed. Stultz
ana the two passengers were killed.
Except among airmen 'Stultz IL
practically forgotten now. al
though In the annals OF aviation
he will always be remembered as
one of q few pilots who made
perfect trans. oceanic flight in the
days when hazards were greater
than they will be in the future.
Those immortal lines that Thomas
Gray wrote nearly 200 years ago
seem particularly applicable:
q. And like the Inevitable hour
The paths Of glory lead but to
the grave"
A big mall ship drops out of the
skies on German airports. Its pilot
flys the mail, dependable, steady.
Once he flew TO- fame over the At
lantic. Who is he? Read Mondays
"Air Paths Of Glory in the Demo.
crat.