CANADIAN ELECTIONS. AERONAUTICS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1236, 19 September 1911, Page 5

CANADIAN ELECTIONS.

AERONAUTICS.

SERIOUS CHARGES. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright Ottawa, September 17. Mr. Rogers, Minister for Public Works, in Manitoba, has publicly charged tho Federal Liberals with falsifying their voters' lists, also with arranging to import ruffians from the United States on election day to intimidate voters.

1 TWO MORE FATALITIES. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright London, September 17. Mr. Cammell, an aviator, while flying, at Hendon, fell from a height of nino feet, and was killed. 11. Neuport, an airman, succumbed to injuries received while flying at Verdun during the army manoeuvres. He received the Legion of' Honour on his deathbod. BRITISH OFFICER KILLED. (Rec. September 18, 11.10 p.m.) London, September 18. Lieutenant Cammell, while trying tho War Office's new Valkyrie monoplane, made a first circuit .safely, but while he was volplaning, the machine tilted and craslicd to earth. Lieutenant Cammell was terribly injured and died immediately. THE DANGERS OP.FLYING. Tho two points on which, abovo all others, tho future of the aeroplane depends, aro tho diminution of risk and tho increase of efficiency; and as the second of these can hartlly fail to come in the ordinary course of progress, tho first is tho mo.ro for the monjent. Even, at present, though, the dangers'of'flying aro—in ihe view, at least, ol the men who should be most disturbed by them— much exaggerated. In the opinion of tho expert there is hardly any accident which is not preventable; and the careful tables awl records that Mr. Claude GrahamWhito compiled for his book, "The Aeroplant: Past, Present, and Future," certainly support this view. During the 18 months to which these records apply more than a thousand people learnt tho uso of the aeroplane. During the same period there were 35 fatal accidents, in whioh 38 people lost their lives. As a curious, rather than as a valuable basis of comparison, it may be pointed out that 90 people were killed and 80 injured while mountaineering last tho army pf mountain-climbers is not and that the construction of tho first hundred miles of railway in England cost 15 lives. 1

What is more useful, howoveir, is the analysis that is made of these accidents. Eleven of them were tho result of breakages; eight of loss of control; three of some failure of the controlling mechanism; and four of them occurred when tho aeroplane \vas not in the air at all. When Orvillo Wright fell with Lieutenant Selfridge, for instance, a broken propeller was the cause. Captain Ferber was crushed by his engine, that broko loose from its bed in a tumble-while ho was running along the ground. Delagrange subjected a light machine to too great a strain, and one of his wings "buckled up." The accident to Charles Rolls, in its first causes, was somewhat similar; and so was that to Wachter, who mado a dive without; cutting off his engine. In all these cases greatfT structural strength might hare removed all danger. Chavez, of course, when ho fell, after crossing the Alps, failed to manipulate his "control" at all—probably because ho was numbed with cold—and Cecil Grace lost his way over tho Channel; in these cases the human factor alono can bo held responsible. .