A FLIGHT THAT FAILED.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 274, 18 November 1899, Page 3 (Supplement)

A FLIGHT THAT FAILED.

, SHOCKING END OP A DARING t ■ AERONAUT. ft-

ALL BUT SUCCESSFUL.

j (From Our London Correspondent.)

LONDON, October G

Graphic as are the details of Mr H. U Wells' thrilling story "The Aeronauts," I don't suppose any of us ever expected to meet with precisely the same tragic romance in our morningpaper. Nevertheless there it was last Monday, the only difference being that 5n the much too true tale one life instead of two was sacrificed. The hero of this fatal attempt at navigatJng the air was Mr Percy P. Pilcher, BuT enthusiastic young aeronaut and Inventor. Mr Pilcher was for a long .time assistant to the celebrated Mr Hiram S. Maxim, and learnt all that canny expert could teach him. Mr Maxim himself has invented a flying machine, a marvellous concoction of firings and pulleys, which takes brief and safe trial trips on a sort of railway in his back garden. Mr Maxim Indicates very clearly what this indention would do if it were let loose with himself as steersman in the boundless ether. But the date of his first voyage has always been and still remains in nubibus. Poor Pilcher had not the patience to go slow and sure like Maxim. He ■was always trying flights on new and improved "machines. Sometimes he did seem to fly a bit and sometimes he and his flyer came more or less heavily to the ground. But he was wonderfully lucky on the whole in escaping accidents.

On Saturday Mr Pilcher was experimenting- with an invention which he claimed would fly 500 yards in Lord Braye's park, near Paigby. A number of onlookers were present, and Mr Pilcher himself was in the highest Spirits. He started successfully from the ground (in itself a phenomenal tteat), rose 50 feet in the air, and flew along propelled by a fairly strong .wind some 100 yards. Then something ivvas heard to crack with, a sharp report and the machine collapsing came •with, a sickening thud to the ground. Soon after the news of Mr Pllcher's 'death reached London a London "Star" •man called on Major Baden-Powell, who was one of the witnesses of the fatal flight. After expressing his great regret, Major Powell said: —"I made one of a party invited to witness Mr Pilcher's experiments. He had been staying with Lord Braye for several days, and had made several successful flights. It was his intention to try on Saturday a new machine he had recently constructed, and with which he expected to do a great flight. Unfortunately he selected first an old machine. How the accident occurred I cannot say. It was perhaps due to the wetting of the canvas and the subsequent breaking of a small piece of bamboo in the tail. Mr Pilcher rose in the ordinary way; that is to say he ran forward with the machine while several" were pulling on a rope attached to* it. He then soared somewhat as • a kite rises. He had reached a height of 50ft and had gone a distance of 100 yards when he ieard a slight crack and down came the whole with a terrible crash. He fell, as far as we could judge, on one •wing. We found Mr Pilcher -unconscious amidst the wreckage, but we did not expect the accident to end fatally. Two doctors examined him and found that his leg was broken, but could discover no injury to the head or spine."'

"Was Mr Pilcher much in advance of Lilienthal?"' asked the "Star" man, recalling the German aeronaut who died while attempting a flight with a similar machine some years ago.

• "Considerably," replied Major Baden-Powell. 'He' was able to rise from the ground, whereas Lilienthal always attempted his flight from a mound. I have seen Mr Pilcher, moreover, fly a distance of 500 yards, which is really the thing after which he was striving. He had constructed a motor for attachment to his machine, and with that he could have flown just as Jar as the motor would propel him. On eveiy ground-his death must be deplored. He was comparatively young, enthusiastic, and had given many years to the study of flying machines. Ido not know anyone who is working on the same lines or will ■f-, 1 ■ ttt>-.+]>is TvnrV avltpto he has left it. I hope people will realise that he was Boi' l. j uUim ii dyHum, ignorant of the principles and practice of aerial motion. He was skilful and trained, fully aware of the difficulties and dangers of the work."

Mr Hiram Maxim has also been interviewed on the catastrophe. In the course of a long talk he said: "Pilcher took a great interest in the experiments of Lilienthal, who was killed by falling from his machine while experimenting in Germany in August, 1896. Richer has now met his death in exactly the same way. Mr Pilcher had what is called a soaring machine. Sometimes he went on a hill and when the wind was blowing strongly he .Would run forward with his soaring machine and succeed in riding- the wind for perhaps 300 feet, sometimes rising 30ft to 50ft above the side of the hill. At other times he had a cord or wire attached to the machine after the manner of a boy with a kite. The machine would mount as a kite «oes, and he was able to-change his angle while in the air and either go Up.or dow-n. I think the fatal experiment was the last kind, namely, with the; cord. It was Pilcher's intention, When he had succeeded in balancing himself in the air, to apply a motor to.the machine and do away with the c0rd."....

"But has Mr Pilcher's experimenting, really brought us any nearer the %jng machine?"

"i'es, I think so. My own experiments have proved that propulsion and-lifting power may be obtained by mechanical means, arid the experiments of Lilienthal and Pilcher show ttat sometimes one can balance himself, in the air. Professor Langeley has shown that a machine can even to fly of itself. The French Government, and the American Government are-experimenting with machines similar io one I had at Baldwin's Park, and they will probably succeed."