Evening Star Newspaper, June 22, 1930, Page 86

12 : 7 THE SUNDAY STAR, WAS How 1 Have Crashed in T hirty-Four 7 After Doing Ups, the Aui A crash for “Young Eagles.” This and other photos on (1) Shows where the plane has struck the water with a sh ower of splintered, the nose is about to hit the dirt. (3) The right wing wheel of the landing gear is coming up. (5) Pilot Grace. CRASH is a serious thing to an air- plane pilot. A succession of them reacts against his record. I've had 34 crashes to date. You'd think, offhand, that I was a pretty terrible pilot. But don't be hasty. There is a slight difference between my crashes and those in commercial aviation, All of mine have been done intentionally. Al have been photographed for motion pictures. My profession—or trade, if you prefer—is that of a stunt man for the movies, and crash- ing up airplanes is my specialty. I drifted to Hollywood after the war, and more or less accidentally fell into stunting. I was an as- sistant property man, and on the lot one day a stunt man lost his nerve and refused to make a 40-foot dive into a net. I volunteered, and the director seemed pleased with the re- sult, for then and there I became a “stunt man.” The first year I got more than 100 stunts to do, and only smashed two ribs, which was remarkably* lucky. Many of the wise ones who look at movie stunts on the screen and laugh them off as faked are in the same class with the fellow who watches a magician’s most complicated illusion and says, “Aw, he had it up his sleeve!” The movie stunts are real, most of them, and that is why stunt men are employed. A director wouldn’'t dare to ask a highly priced actor to jump from a moving train or crack up an air- plane, even if the actor knew how. He would be too valuable to risk. And don’t think the risk isn’'t a real one, even to a trained stunt man. Last year 16 men were killed on Hollywood lots,. 9 were permanently injured, and 1,272 men and women were hurt badly enough to require a physician's attention. The risk in the thrill stunts of the screen is very real even to trained stunt men, so you can sce why directors don't want to risk their bigh-priced actors. The risk would be even g-eater for them because they don't know how to stunt. I,\FTER that first high dive, I trained and practiced. I was taught by veteran stunt men how to handle my body in the air. I went through all the stunts that fall to the lot of Hollywood stunt men—leaping from speeding autos, wrecking autos, changing from plane to plane, from plane to auto or motor boat, jump- irg off cliffs, and dozens of others. But gradually I turned more and more to y ane stunting, particularly plane crashes. My experience as an aviator overseas during the war, I suppose, led me to turn to this. As a result, I found that I seldom lacked work in naking crashes. To the 34 crashes I have made up to this time, 1 expect to add between 5 and 10 more this vear, and I see no reason why I should not reach 50 before I quit the business. I believe I have solved crack-ups. I bave confidence in my ability to smash a ship on an absolute spot in a restricted territory. Experi- ence teaches me what to do to be able to walk maway from the wreck. It sounds simple, and yet to tear the wings from a ship traveling at various speeds of from 80 to 110 miles an hour involves unusual prob- lems In the first place, if I were to miss I'd not only not get paid, but would destroy property and human lives. Cameras and men are always pirecd direetly in front of the designated spot. FOR “Wings” it was necessary to do a crash - into “no man’s land.” This no man’s land was as real as was that of the Western front during the war. As a matter of fact, the re- constructed area was closely supervised by the generals actually in command of such sectors during the Great War. Every piece .of abandoned artillery, every pillbox and machine gun nest was placed as it had been at the date the action in the picture called for. Hence the barbed wire entanglements were this page show successive stages of the same crack-up. spray and bounced 15 feet. (2) The propeller is has been broken off by the first impact. (4) One ship, yet I had to come in and land on & spot within vision of the 21 cameras detalled to shoot the action. Every possible protection was taken. A section 25 feet wide was remade. The real cedar posts were removed and feather-light ones of balsa wood were substituted. The wire was unstrung and cotton yarn placed on the balsa posts. After they were painted, it looked almost as real as it had before. Several other precautions I took. The Spad The same crash as that above, taken an instant later and from another angle. Note that both wings heve been broken off. built of cedar posts two feet in the ground and protruding four out. The wire was of real war stock. Shell holes 20 feet in diameter and half that in depth pitted the entire area. When I looked at that burned and broken country and thought that I had to dive into it in a real little 220 S. P. A. D. at a speed of 90 miles an hour, I almost lost hope. A forced landing at any time in such teiri- tory usually spelled catastrophe in a Chesse plane had a pressure system of gasoline feed— and contained its large tank under the belly of the ship. This arrangement I changed com- pletely, discarding the big tank and using a smaller one on the top wing. This fed the car- buretor by gravity. Such an arrangement mini- mized the danger of fire. Furthermore, as the longerons were of wood, 1 stripped the fuselage of its fabric and taped them as far back as the tail. I knew such & He 1/l R He Revea of Plane BY 1% Daredevil Pilot Who Doubled for the “Wings,” “Lilac Time” anc ’ One of Dick Grace’s unexpected cras Patrol.” Flying over giant redwoods a reached the edge. He barely stalled t control, had to crash. In the insert, crash. procedure would keep these pieces from splin- tering. Splinters are sometimes inconvenient, since it takes one but a couple of inches in the right spot and it's the end of a perfect day for the undertaker. When the fuselage was recovered, all of the instruments were removed from the board and a pad placed before me. The throttle and spark were put so close together on’ the right side that I could handle them with two fingers. There was but one more precaution. A system of belts was devised to keep me strapped back firmly in the ship. These consisted of a webbing six inches wide across my chest and one across by knees. I found the chest belt necessary. Without it in a previous crack, I had hit the instrument board with such force that I went completely through it, breaking four vertebrae in my neck. Lately, I've found that I need another ad- dition to these belts. In a picture called “Young Eagles,” it was necessary for me to crash on my back. The force with which I overturned al- most threw me from under the two belts. Now I have added shoulder straps, connecting to the chest belt. The little Spad was ready for the shot and, getting in, I tested the motor for the last time. Then we took the air, followed by the two German scouts who were supposed to shoot me down.