MANKIND ON WINGS. SOME NEW SENSATIONS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 140, 10 December 1909, Page 2

MANKIND ON WINGS. SOME NEW SENSATIONS.

By H. S. King, A.I.E.E.

(For The Post.) 22nd October, 1909. Two months ago, every one was talking about the wonderful results obtained by flying men during the " aviation week" at Rheims. Now, our dream of English races in the air has been fulfilled. In the bracing North, action follows hard upon suggestion. Plans once formed are carried out post haste. A ground has been chosen ' and prepared (level surfaces for starting and landing are necessary for safety), stands have been built for spectators, and huge sheds for the aeroplanes. Now, for the first time, home-keeping English people have the opportunity to see for themselves these wonderful flying men, of whom they have read such glowing descriptions. _ They may watch Hubert Latham soaring on his Antoinette monoplane, with white wings gracefully outstretched, like some gigantic seabird cleaving the nir in swift ' steady glorious flight. They may see Bleriot monoplanes darting like huge dragonflies, with 'their designer's tenacity .of purpose expressed in thsir severely practical and business-like lines. Never was an inventor's personality more forcibly stamped upon the child of his brain. They may see Henry Farman on the biplane named after him, which holds the world's record for distance. On a similar machine to that on which he made this record, he has here in Blackpool achieved another world's record — for speed, having accomplished in one hour a flight of 30 miles 1577 yards. Visitors may also sea young Paulham, famous for his high flights 'and his dashes across country. He knows, if ever a man di(J, how to " take the current when it served." An obscure mechanic, following with keen wistful interest the progress of aeronautics, he heard of a prize, a Voisin biplane, offered for the best small-scale model of this type. He gave up all his spare hours to - making one. gained the prize. He became a flying mari, and instantly won several prizes. Rapidly he made his name as one ,of the boldest and most skilful j masters of the air. Many other wellknown "aviators" are aLso here, making up the best list that has been got together since Rheims. What is it that makes one's sensations, as one watches these flying men, so exciting and so ecstatic? Wny is it that, when the wheels of their machines leave the ground, when they rise with "throbbing movement into the air. one feels so vivid 3. sense of triumph and of joy, such an irresistible need of working off emotion by shouting and cheering the exploit on T You have seen a child's glee as a kite mounts up, and up. He gives little delighted cries, and claps his hands and jumps about. That was just what I felt impelled to dp when I first saw Farman, during his record-breaking flight. Partly, these sensations are caused by the pride One feels at the Conquest of the air*. For thousands of years men have dreamed of flying — only to-day has the age-long dream come true. But mingled with this exultation is another — delight in the beauty of these great birds. For, whatever they may look like on the ground, they are beyond all question beautiful in the air. As they rise with steady swiftness into the blue dome, flouting the eye of the sun; as they swerve and swoop and circle ; as they slide downwards in harmonious sweeps, and gently alight once more on solid ground; no pne, with any perception of ttip beautiful can help feeling that a. new element has been added to the joy of life. They are indeed equally enthralling from the points of view of science and of art.