FROM JOCKEY TO AIRMAN.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 305, 21 December 1912, Page 18

FROM JOCKEY TO AIRMAN.

ROMANTIC CAKKEKS OF GREAT AVIATOKS. It has been said that the stage was the scavenger of the professions, but air j man-ship has beaten it hollow. Among \ the famous aviators of to-day you finJ men of every rank, from eons of great no.ble.men and millionaires down to men who began life as humble mechanics. The late Hon. C. B. Kohs was the son of that great Conservative organiser, Lord Uangattock; the Hon. Maurice Egerton is heir to the title of Baron Egerton of Tatton; the Hon. Patrick Boyle is son of the Karl of Glasgow; while M. Salmet was originally a "lad" in a racing stable at Maisons Laffittc. Poor Mr. Rolls, as we all remember, was killed at Bournemouth, but Mr. Egerton and Mr. Boyle have happily escaped any such fate, although the former is minus a finger, owing to catching it in the two-to-one gearing of his machine. He began flying in 1909, purchasing one of the six original Wright biplanes. FENCER, FIGHTER, AND FLYER. Salmet, who has been proving his powers in the air to the coun-try-foLk of England, is an all-round man. He loves a good horse, he is a fine fencer and boxer, and can more than hold hie own at running and jumping. He once madfc his living—a very good living, too —as a commercial traveller, and he has journeyed all over France on a motor bicycla He began his apprenticeship to flying as a mechanic in the works of the Bieriot Company at Hendon, and he ie -to-day, perhaps, the finest cross-country flier in the world. At least two millionaires are prominent in the aviation world, of whom one is Mr. Armstrong Drexel. In 1910 Mr. Drexel beat the then British record for height by reaching 6,600 ft. It does not eound much in the light of recen-t performances, but it was the best to date, bexting all previous records. WOUND UP BY SWIMMING. Mr. Mortimer Singer owes his wealth to the Singer sewing machine. He bought his first 'plane in 1909, and in the course of the next year owned no fewer than three^—a Blcriot, a Farman, and a Voisin. In the summer of 1010 he took a machine to Egypt, but was unlucky enough to get a bad fall at Heliopolis and break his leg. Mr. Singer has long been known as a yatchsman and a balloonist. Those who were at ihe Bournemouth flying week in 1910 will not easily forget the wonderful and spectacular flight across the Solent in a storm by "Mr. Jones." "Mr. Jones" is, of coulee, Mr. j Robert Loraine, a well-known actor. He afterwards gained fame by flying from Holyhead to Ireland. True, he fell into 1 tbe sea when only three hundred yards j from his goal, but finished hia journey !by swimmicg. ! In the same year, 1910, a wonderful I flight, was made from Paris to England ! with a passenger by Mr. John B. Alois sant. Mr. Moisaaot ie an American architect, and, previous to thie astonish ing performance, had only been up six times in an aeroplane. His achievement was the more wonderful because there I was a fog over the sea and a very still westerly breeze blowing. A SAMPLE OF BRITISH PLUCK. No name—except, perhaps, that of the Wright brothers—is more famous in the records of airmanship than that of Farman. Henry and Maurice Farman are sons of a British subject who settled in France ac the representative of a Lon don paper. Henry Farman was the first Englishman to fly; the second was Mr. Moore Brabazon, a Harrow boy, who afterwards adopted the calling of racing motorist. Mr. S. F. Cody b an American—no relation of Colonel Cody, of Wild West fame, yet a famous hoxseman—and he first made a name by clever experiments with man-carrying kites. He ie now & naturalised British subject, and is perhaps the only airman to continue flying after a really bad accident. His fall at Laffman's Plain on June 23rd, 1910, was a terrible one, yet he was flying again by July Sth. Only a few weeks ago he won handsome prizes in the Army aeroplane competition. The Navy and Army contribute dozens of first-class men to the ranks of aviators. Lieutenant Conneau, who won the £10,000 circuit of England prize offered by the "Daily Mail," was a middy in the French Navy, while our own Navy has given us Commander Schwann and Lieutenant Boothby. From our Army we have Captain Bertram Dfckson and many others.