The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, July 26, 1930, Page 8

% - : E VAUOINANATACICUNEAO AR dedi ST) TL LM Stafford (Casey) Lambert latest of the. flying Lamberts to mect with an air mishap. . He survived, for a parachute saved him when he stepped out of his splinter- ing plane at 1500 feet (April 12, 1930). AJOR Albert Bond Lambert has lost a son, a nephew, and a cousin in airplane accidents, and another hee has barely es- caped death by an emergency parachute jump. But Major Lambert continues to go up to the sky in ships. For he is a veteran flyer, whose services to aviation have been such as to make a grateful St, Louis give Lambert Field his name. Ever since the days hen an airplane was a Hele kite, Major Lambert has been flying. He is a member of the world-wide aeronautical club called “The Early Birds,” composed of the-500 men who pioneered in the clouds and tried their wings when they had only faith and a few square feet of fab- ric to keep their kites in the air. The flying at is in his blood. And he'll go on, he "For the sky’is a jealous mistress. As jealous as the sea has ever been. Sail- . ors and sailors’ sons have always stuck to the water. And evidently the air is going to subject men to the same tradi- tion. If so, it seems to have chosen the Lambert family for a cruel experiment. Major Lambert has given not only his own family to the air, but he like- wise sacrificed his career with its political promise, when the sky lanes called to him. le was being groomed for mayor, was a member of the City Council. At that point the story of his loyalty to aeronautics begins. The lure of the strange places above the clouds came to Major Lambert when his sons and nephews were mere youngsters. HIS air pioneer is the son.of Jordan W. Lambert, 7 aan of the Lambert Pharmacal Company, drug manufacturers. He dates his participation in aero- nautics from the Second International Balloon races, which - were held in St. Louis in 1907. While in Europe the ear before, he had qualified as a balloon pilot, receiving jicense Number 17 from the Federation Aeronautique Nationale. Three years later as president of the Aero Club of St. Louis, he supervised the Kinloch Park aviation meet, in which '2 airplanes, 90 per cent of the number then in the United States, participated. That same year he i nee a an we model biplane, and was taught to fly by igri right. ie airs plane pilot’s license issued in 1910 was No, 61. From the very first, Lambert realized that death flew a black ship close beside the men who were trying to fly. Motion pictures which were made during the Kinloch Park meet gave the name, “The Death ,”” to a band of nine flyers who participated. Lambert was among them. Five of them died in airplane accidents. , After the outbreak of the World War Lambert es the -Missouri Aeronautical Society to train balloon pilots for the government. He was sompiascaed a lieutenant and placed in charge of a balloon carfip, subsequently ris- ing to the rank of major. Under his Hava 354 pilots were trained, Aerial duties came thick and fast. Major Lambert was chairman of the Technical Committee of the Temporar; Airport Commission, resigning in 1928, Lambert Fie uf St. Louis’ municipal airport, was named for him. He ‘was instrumental in forming the Robinson Airplane Cor- poration, which i the government cnotiaet for flying the mail out of St. Louis. He was one of the backers of the Lindbergh flight. AJOR LAMBERT has given up so much for his chosen profession that there would be little left if he turned from it now. It is inevitable that accidents should occur in the air, the flying executive says.: He admits that he is emotionally affected when accidents come to those who are close to him, but he adds that if he is philosophical about the death of others, he must follow the same reasoning when it comes to his son and nephew and cousin, The bad luck of the Lamberts started a June 24, 1927. George Lea Lambert, 21, the son of Major Lambert, and his cousin, James ‘Theodore Walker, 21, had just been graduated from Princeton, where they had been room- mates. They were excited because college days were over and , it was time to do things ai They were eager to go home, too. Walker was especially excited. Only a few weeks before, he had inherited vee ee 000 left 4 his maternal grandmother, Mrs. Lily Lai The two boys hopped into Be 's biplane, with Lam- bert piloting, and started to Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, ane they intended to visit friends’ before flying home to it. Uuis, But they lost their way and decided to land and take new bearings. The landing did not appear very difficult. S11 AA NESTA CT FUNTION CU Ue 4 j Major Al- bert Bond \Lam- bert . . . has been a flyer since 1907 . . . and his work for aviation led a grate- ful St. oie to name Lambert Field for him. . . . Though the air has taken a frightful toll in his family, he flies. UST as they were about to come down in a field near Pottsville, Pennsylvania, the engine cut out, the plane went into a tail spin and fell 800 feet. ‘Walker, who was sitting in front of the pilot, was killed, and Lambert received slight injuries. ‘Jowever, the men- tal shock caused him to give up flying for several months. But there is a strong fascination to the air, and after awhile young Lambert risked the clouds again. He be- came vice president of the Von Hoffmann Aircraft Cor- poration, and for nearly two years devoted his time to the promotion of aeronautics, just as his- father and cousins were doin; Major suber was acting as an official observer of an endurance flight at the Lambert-St. Louis Field, on July 29, 1929. ge Leo Lambert had taken A student yer, Harold C. Jones, 18, of Minneapolis, up. {ore lesson. The other Lambert men were about their b usiness in the air, too. Then something happened. Just what, aches knows. Bat soi evidently case trouble Sevelooed ae Lambert soe 4 to bring the a quick emergency landing. ably the hands of ee student flyer the cco Fag a panic-stricken moment, leaving the instructor powerless to ig ge 1 4 ight tail ay, the training plane came down ee right tai spin at Black Jack, six miles from Lambert Fi ield, and young Lambert died as quickly as his cousin had i in the crash two years before. student died while being rushed to the hospital by Samuel Lambert, another cousin of Major Lambert. lajor Lambert gave someone else the official record of the endurance test and stood by the second casket which the air had given him. But the Lamberts are courageous and do net quit. IGHT months passed then and the motors roared sweetly as their ships took to the sky. Three Lam- rt airmen still carried on. ots each other, one of them died and another barely missed Samuel el Hrecke sides Lambert, former Picadas of the -Graves Automobile fompany. and Ri resident of the lumber ‘Aircraft Engine Company, of Moline, Indi- Then, within five days : James T. Walke ted just heen pew Ee ated become heir to $5,- 000,000 a at Princeton and (June 24, 1927). “ana, and a cousin of Major Lambert's, set off jauntily one morning. He was carrying with him in his plane a motor which he intended to exhibit at the All-American Aircraft Show at Detroit, Michigan. le was a mile from the South Bend Municipal Air- port when one blade of t plane's propeller broke of according to witnesses, The Vibration ‘caused’: the engine to be wrenched from the plane. The plane went into a spin.. Lambert: was . killed instantly, crushed by va School. He hai the extra motor at his side, ree times death bed taken its toll of the Lamberts. Samuel Lanben could: not have stopped ts career in the air any more than his noted cousin, after the first. two sane He, too, had the Samuel Tanke "had bx. perimented with model air- craft from the time he was a student at Mout ‘Training id ntered aviation bein, only “year before his death. Associates of the younger Lambert at Moline attrib- uted the accident to roan sae | in previous tests of the: li head wind, Two flying Lamberts yee et 5 Nae bani ae eran fre, ca his nephew, ‘ Sta: . when he was killed in a crash with his cousin, ‘George Lambert, who wat also badly hurt He had to fap. od, yell three times... ‘But Major Lambert keeps on flying, even though his son, a cousin and a nephew have been killed in plane crashes, and another nephew has saved his life by a parachute jump of 1500 feet would climb over the \ Then Casey himself ad of. engine laced on the lla ert fg saponin oy seo lane. It was t that at ad been operated had weakened the propeller, causing the blade to snap off as the pilot.was driving his plane into a 2t, Been ncmee Ws cal ae (Copyright, 1930, By Every Week. Mieasnae ernie in U. 8. A) ATEN NT ~ a4, 1. GLA fA LAL Georg Lambert - « « piloted the ship in which his dearest friend was killed . only to die him- self a little later when a student flying with him froze the controls. nom Bad Luck Purses the Flying Lamberts - (June 29, 7 AREAL RH Tir th George Lea Lambert's broken body . . . was carried from the field near St. Louis . . . when ‘a crash killed a hi and a student, Harold C. Jones Young George was the son of Rae Albert Bond Lambert, aerial pioneer. + for another Lambert imaggs, listened while the funeral rites were said birdman. Then they went back to their planes. Five days later Guat was elie a Lockheed- Sirius low-winged monoplane, r., rode along with him. lerbert Condie. The gay red ship had n attracting a great deal of attention ever since rerbert Fahy, notéd aviator, had brought it on to the ‘e had been View Farm,” each other.” = , Lambert and ing a-hew ship and ization to which lives. Flying Three cousins but he had escay a licensed pilot. Casey Lambert, cousins who used: reared in a trate on thrills. tive for flying. 2 agile pai the of peo i wondered how any 55x could dai rage! Louis flying field, from the Detroit eee Lambert didn’t own the ship. thinking about buying it. Thirty-fifth Division Air Service. take -a-spin in the air while considering whether he But he was He was a ieaeane in the He decided to should, or shouldn't, make ship was priced at $18,895, flying around St. Louis County for quite awhile when Lambert explained later, rather low over the farm and was starting i gain altitude, at about 190 miles an hour, when the ailerons were fluttering and working aqaisit to the air as sailors’ sons go to sea. bert’s interest and activity in aviation influenced the younger birdmen to enter the adventurous— and to them, perilous—profession. . George Lee Lambert and Walker were flying home from college as merrily and happily as though they had a smooth white road them, instead of an, air pocket or two, and maybe : te detour, ahead, ee Samuel Lambert was flying for business rea- sons, the day that he fell from the using his ship for tra George Lambert hey devoting his time to taining another pilot for the newest of all indus- tries the day that he met Jab And his Casey Lambert, was inate: he made his successful j The Lamberts, it the purchase. The T decided to fly or ew AMBERT saw that a jump was necessary. He yelled to Condie to ium. but it took three calls before Condie climbed side of the ship. Lambert went over the other. The two men came dovn within 50 feet of each other. And the monoplane edged off ioacegt nosed down, cut a swath through an appl i Condie, who had been ine National Guard parachutes because they were test- over the le orchat didn't know what it would do, suddenly discovered that they were members of the famous Caterpillar Club, be mythical organ- women lielotg those mén and who ‘have jumped with patachutes to save their For the fourth time a crash had come to the Lamberts. of Casey Lambert had died, His case paral lels that of the death of Ganige Lambert lightly, for Casey La companied by a student flyer. 4, three years older than his teacher, was’ not mbert was ac- Condie, who was soa “a cay us luck -of nyway,, two who are still carry on. advent ‘who had three turous to ride the same clouds. Major Lambert, who has seen a son, a nephew and a cousin go to death in the fatal crash. IHE Lamberts fly, not because it is a spec- tacular ‘stunt, but because they have. been flying atmosphe They take rly te Major Lam- under day that Walker was sky. He was yrtation. T, too, “appear, do not risk ‘mot ‘concen- Big arenes mo- Inthe et n't sem to dem he oe the pee te det § tei in the family, both from years of service\and age, goes ste ba cee 1m Abe, Roneks avy when the sight of adily on. He started me eies: a Pein for a breathless shook their heads and re to ‘go the tree tops. He drove ships in the days when was a regular passenger on every flight. But he came through every trip. ° His relatives b the shy inthe = When the’ ships have cued ates {as beyond the dreams of “* Early Bind a io clear of ne Lambert ship have pin others. fig oi dco gods of the air, - Major Lambert still carries Ay \ FEMA AUTEN f) eos