New Britain Herald Newspaper, August 13, 1915, Page 10

pt will stay & d i death men ? list of fatalities has grown in this country and Europe , perusal of it is heartsicken- _ fateful words of Lincoln ey, whose plunge to death at ancisco made him the latest hi of spectacular aviation, hold hg but doom for his successors. ere have been others, and I - as well add my own name to st, for it is bound to come.” bt was the statement he made nmer. Three weeks ago he for' a moment the dreadful of it. And although daring to treme, Beachey was looked up- 2 man who knew what he was when he was ‘n the air. _now. comes the man who will ed Beachey as a daredevil of sky—Art Smith. Says Mr. h: “Beachey was wrong, and so lhey wrong who look upon air bation as a mere tempting of I have no idea that I will be i, and I shall loop justas many as ever Beachey did. I helped L my own machine, and that is leévery man must do who wants tunts in the air. the machine, not fate, that .all the catastrophes in avia- | I shall set just as fast a pace any flyer ever did and if avi- k want to follow me let them do “their own peril, unless they this tip: Know every nut and jin your machine and either put together yourself or see them Jogether, n instrument of death is what geroplane has been termed by general public, but I have al- disagreed with people who r go more than a few feet above her earth and then only when climb the steps to an elevated h or step into a lift in a high INSPORTATION, i aeroplane, in my opinion, i3 yehicle of transportation pro- the man at the helm—and up time he is usually the only ager—has studied not only avi- n but the seCTets that are con- ed in every puff of wind and ev- cloud and, mogt of all, knows construction of the plane which p convey him safely thousands of p above the ground, LR Pt do not mean that an aviator .either constructs or supervises sonstruction of his heavier than tis immune from death, but st that the knowledge that e Is peifectly, built and Art Smith, Accepted Successor of Lineoln Beachey. that all chances of a wire brace breaking or of the motor going wrong are removed instills confi- dence and makes the flyer devoid of fear of the grim reaper. “The majority of the aviators in this country seldom construct their cars, but depend upon the manufac- turer to furnish them with machines that are ready to take them into the clouds as soon as they have obtain- ed the license. These factory aero- planes are all right providing the owner takes them down and then re- constructs them, testing each and every part so as to be able to de- termine the exact strain the craft can stand. “I would never advise a man to construct a machine entirely him- self, however. Especially unless he has had years of practical experi- ence in mechanics and has made a hard study of all the angles of avia- tion. “Several of my compatriots have lost their battles to the grim reap- er by giving him a big handicap. I mean by that that they have at- tempted to escape paying fees to men holding the patent rights and thereby have been forced to use machine parts which were not cap- able of standing the strain. As a result they left the ground chine which was wecal<n the struggle began. .MILITARY SACRIFICES. “If one will look {li: of aviators killed during the last three years he will find many names of army and navy officers who have offered up their lives not in battle, but in trial flights with United States aeroplanes. Now, I can safe- ly say that the majority of the men killed while wearing the straps of the service were men who were well trained in the art of flying but who knew little of the construction of their mounts. “Of course, the army officers do not try the famous ‘look the loop,’ but their accidents happened mostly " when a brace gave way or their mo- tors stopped, and this proves my contention that preparation is more than 50 per cent of the game, “I have too much respect for the dead to indulge in criticism of their faults. But many of the brave boys responsible for advances in aviation died because they were men of nerve who took a few lessons in how to’ get off the ground and met the various dangers as they-came, not n 2 ma- preparing for them in advancey i : A 7 b » “In my opinion death not beca of his daring stunts in the because others have gone farther than Beachey did on that fatal day, but because of faulty construction ‘n his machine. Beachey was not a man to watch de- tails. “Again, I think that Beachey’s ma- chine was too light for the terrific strain he must have known would be placed upon it. The little mono- plane weighed only 550 pounds. The strain placed upon this machine .in a perpendicular drop must have been twice what the wings of the plane could stand. “Of course, there is a great deal of daring connected with the art of flying. But daring is found in every walk of life, and nine out of ten of the feats that the onlooker thinks hair-raising are mere play for the capable aviator. “It is in the knowing—not the dar- ing—that the aviator is successful, and I hope before long to convince every man, woman and child that my contention is correct. Among the birdmen who have given their lives to aviation is Cal Rogers, the first to make a transcontinental flight from New York to San Fran- cisco. This was done in a Wright biplane. Later he was exhibiting at Long Beach when a sea gull got into some of the wires and stopped his control. This was an accident pure and simple. “St. Croix Johnstone was another of our American aviators who met an untimely death, and nobody knows the real cause. He was one of the old-time fllyers. It was while he was flying his fifty horse power s monoplane at G Park, Chicago, that his 1machine gave a sudden lurch and he was thrown from many hundred feet to his death. “Among the few women W’ attain i xs JL I Moisant She was tl g a licens v record flights. She was carrying a passenger in her monoplane when a puff of wind up- set the guest, who sat behind her. His falling upset the balance of the car and she was kilied. “Foremost among iue English av- iators is the name of Gustave Hamel. He was lost in a fog while crossing the channei. Hamel left Le Crotoy for Hendon one Saturday, when a fog came up and he lost his bear- ings. Torpedo boats and hydro- planes made a thorough s ch for him, but only the wreck of the ma- - JOAN S TN chine was found. “Weldon B. Cooke was another ex- perienced aviator killed in an exhi- bition flight. It on Sept. 17, 1914, that he was exhibiting at Pu- eblo, Colo. A crowd was enjoyi his brilliant flights, when he sm‘- denly plunged 2,000 feet to his death. The fatality was caused by a weak- ness in his car. “When Eugene B. Ely made the unprecedented feat of landing on the deck of the cruiser Pennsylva- nia after a flight of twelve miles he excited the greatest interest among naval and military officials. An avi- ator had made a flight from a ship’s deck, but none had effected landing from the shore. Ely, in a Curtis bi- plane, left Selfridge fleld near San Francisco and flew twelve miles over the open ocean. He landed without jarring the delicate machin- ery of his craft. He was killed in 'HIS HAND FOR AVIATORS ? October, 1911, in Alabama. “Then there was “Phil Parmeles, who was one of the best in the game. He first used a Wright car and lat- er he made one of his own design to d paying the patent right. He was killed by being caught pocket while testing his car.” A score or more of others might be added tc this death list, and in nine instances out of ten the fatali- - ties can be attributed to some weak- ness of {heir craft. So it would seem that Mr. Smith knows what he is talking about when he says, “It's ihe machine; not fate P Muleahey—“Your band was the worst in the parade. No snap to it : d t let themselves out, Yo« know Cinkelsge 1—*No, dat prass pand, not an ain’t it?” pand's & clastic pand,