AERONAUTICS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13830, 6 September 1910, Page 7

AERONAUTICS.

A TERRIFYING EXPERIENCE. TJoited Press Association—By Electrio Telegraph—Copyright. PARIS, September 4.

Morane. thc aviator, was descending from a high flight, when his engine stopped, at a height of 7oooft, and he was unable to re-start it, and had to monoplane down at an incline at a headlong speed, which caused and a buzzing in hi s cars. He was caught in violent eddies, and nearly capsized, but recovered control, and alighted on level ground, where he was found, still .seated, and dazed, but otherwise uninjured. Brookins, an American aviator had a similar experience recently. In a dispatch to the Pittsburg *'-GazetteTimes," the young aviator tells how tho ••unforeseen element of ch-mee' : almost brought him to tho point of failure when "flO_o feet up in th© sky." "At this altitude, my teeth chattering and my knees knock? , ing together m the icy stillness, _ noticed suddenly- that my motor was -kinoing. I discovered "the fact that thero was scarcely a halfpint of fuel left. Tho front planes of the aeroplane wero still pointer] heavenward. 1 needed 100 feet to fulfil my schedule. At the angle the craft was travelling it would bo but a matter of seconds beforo the motor stopped dead and anything might happen. Acting more by instinct than by reason, I tilted tho elevating planes in front to drive the machine in a horizontal direction. Intuitively I saw this wo-uld cause the remaining drops of fuel to flow into the motor. So soon as I was confident that gravity had come to my rescue I jammed the front planes up again and drove the machine madly upward as t high as possible. Instead of reaching the altitude of 0.175 feet, as compiled by the engineers who triangulated the course, 1 feel certain that I reached a height of 6,275 feet. "When, the machine curved around the greatest altitude attained 1 instantly became aware that my fuel was exhausted. Instinctively I turned down the front planes and when I had scarcely dropped 1000 feet thc motor was dead. From that altitude, more than ono mile and a 6i*_th in the air. with everything below an indistinct blur, the aeroplane sinvplv dropped down like "a bird. Tho only motive power was the natural momentum of gravity."