AEROPLANE TOURS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 47, 25 February 1911, Page 13

AEROPLANE TOURS.

"People generally hp.ve come to the conclusion that flying is nighly dangerous, and will alwaj r s remain so. I, as a practical flyer, say there is very little danger in it now, and that in the future there will be no more risk in an aerial journey than in moving from point to point in a railway train. At present, reckoning expert flyers and pupils vrao can pilot a machine off the ground, there are estimated to be 3000 airmen throughout the world. To tepch these men to navigate a new element with crude, experimental machines, and absolutely no data to go upon, what has the deathroll amounted to? Less than 30! And, in this particular connection, it is significant to recall, as a; comparison, that nine men were killed in one of the great motor-car races. Analysing the deaths that have taken place, it is possible to draw a practical lesson from each. Thus, the set of circumstances which brought about any of these fatalities is not likely to occur again. "Inexperience, foolhardiness, and constructional weakness in machines have been responsible for practically all the accidents which have taken place. Given a good machine, a careful, well-trained pilot, and proper weather conditions, flying is already as safe as motoring ; and very soon it promises to be safer. The dangers which now exist when a man flies will speedily be overcome by the introduction of stronger, speedier machines, and the adoption of engine sys- I terns whereby a compulsory descent, , owing to mechanical troubles, will be ' obviated. The air is absolutely free and unimpeded. Onco wo have definitely conquered our enemy the wind'/ it will offer an absolutely ideal medium for high-speed traffic, besides providing a traveller with the most delightful way imaginable of getting from point to point. '• Next summer, practically for iko first time in a complete and finished way, people will be able to enjoy the sensations of air travel. Ready for trials in tho spring will be the first of a type of machine one might call 'the air-car.' It will be a strongly-built monoplane. A 100-h.p. engine will propel it. It will have a body like that oi a motor-car, with four comfortably-padded seats, well protected from the wind. "There is no reason at all why any wealthy motoiist should not purchase such a machine as this, have an 'aeiial chauffeur' in- i structed to pilot it, if he does not want to learn to drive himself, and enjoy i aeroplaning in a thoroughly practical way. "In its sporting aspect I foresee that flying will enjoy an even greater vogue than motoring. The reason is not far to seek. Motor-car driving, even in its | most favourable aspects, cannot be compared with flying There is a sense cf freedom — an exhilaration — in passing swiftly through the' air that never comes to ono when driving a car. I speak from experience again, having done more than a little motoring. Directly a more convenient, less bulky machine can be pro- ] duced, what one might call the public demand for an aeroplane will begin. i " The demand of the age is fpr highspeed travel. Tho possibilities of land locomotion in this respect are almost exhausted. So, too, are those of sea transit. And now, conveniently to hand when mankind wants it, is air travel. I do not see one instumountable difficulty in the way of completely revolutionising, by means of the aeroplane, all exi&ting methods of communication." — Claud Grahame in The Times.