IS IT JUST LUCK ?

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 46, 23 August 1922, Page 14

IS IT JUST LUCK ?

DEATHS OF FAMOUS , FLYERS THROUGH PERILS TO DIE IN' TRIALS A LIST OF GREAT MEN.

After faang death a thousand tunes with the Marines at Chateau Thierry, St Mihiel, Belleau Wood, and m the two Meusa Argonne offensives, Captain George D Hamilton returned to tills country and peace times to die a few (lays ago while piloting an aeroplan* in a sham battle at Gettysburg, istates the "New York Tunes " His machine crashed to earth from a height of 400 feet above the historic battlefield In France Captain Hamilton's record for daring and for hairbreadth escapes was not surpassed by that of any one in the A £ F i Uninjured by enemy bullet, gas, or high explosive shell, Captain .Hamilton was mustered out of the service after the Armitttce He rejoined, however, a few months' later and entered the i Aviation Corps. In the air the former "soldier .of the sea" displayed the same courage and audacity for which he had been known at1 the front These qualities, combined with, skill and a natural aptitude for flying)'soon put him in the forerank of our airmen ' Then came the end With a number of others of his corps Captain Hamilton was sent to take part/ in the manoeuvres at Gettysburg, where Ms old comrades, the marines, were playing at war While scouting ahead of the Fifth Regiment of marines "something went wrong," and death chimed a life that had seemed charmed against all mishap j The passing of Captain Hamilton added another name to the already dreadfully long list of-airmen who dared every peril in war or in epoch-making flights across land and sea, and lived—only to perish in some r casual ' enterprise that htiidly seemed a venture To compile the'appalling record, it is necessary to go back to the days of pioneer aviation, when mtn like Arch Hoiey, Ralph John stone, John B. Molsant, and others met death in their rudimentary -machines The history of the air since the war brought aircraft to a high degree-of perfection, has caused it to become almost an omen among aviators that their best may win a hundred odds-on gambles with the grim reaper and then lose when everything seemed in their favour CARLSTROM'S,CARB OF NO AVAIL Seven years ago Victor Carlstrom was regarded as one of the .great airmen m America He was already a > bolder of three American records 'when in 1916 he attempted a non-stop flight from Chicago to New York for the "New York "Times " fj He was unsuccessful in' this, being forced to land at Ene. Fa., and Hammondeport, NY. When he finally got out of his-plane on Governors Island, Carlstrom said "I shall never be, killed /by taking chances, because I^do not believe in tat jng chances But Some day my machine will'collapse, and I will get it, i just as so many other aviators have gotten, li " His prophecy came true On 9th May, 1917, while flying .at Newportl News, Vs., as an instructor Lieutenant in the United States "Army Air Service/ his machine crumpled 3600 feet above the earth, and Carktrora, together with a pupil pilot, Cary B .Epes, "got if" Another American who thus met his*fate after coming unseratehed through all sort* of dangers was Hobart A H Baker, the Princeton athlete Baker had a splendid war record, with a number of enemy 'planes to his credit <y 'After the Armistice, in December/ Baker left the Second Army and started home by way of Paris while waiting for transport* tion, he motored ont to Tool ont'day to look over his cii Spad H« decided to go aloft just once more What happen cd' No one understands exactly It' is said that Baker undertook to fly another officer's machine, one that had recently been repaired. He got only 150 feet above''the ground when the 'plane col- i lapsed and the body of the young officer ' was removed from the debris. /Among other, flyers of this country, who went through ,th« war unharmed and succumbed in ' peace time flights are Hugh Gordon 'Campbell, Syracuse Uiu j rersity athlete'and American ace, who died when his 'plane fell into the ocean it Atlantic City; Captain Field El' Kindley, who was killed during manoeuvres at Keiley Field, Ttzas; Kenneth Earie and Maxwell Blanchard, killed at Palm Beach; Lieutenant Pat Logan, who tell at Baltimore; Lieutenant Janes Murray Gner, formerly of the famous Lafayette Eecadrille, and Sergeant Joseph Peter Saxe, expert aerial photographer with the A E F , both of "whom were killed when -their machine fell near Forest Hills /during ' a championship ennis match in 1920 < AlLcock and Wwker victims^ Several yean ago th« eyes of the whole worM -were directed at the bleak eastern coast of Newfoundland. A prize >f £10,000 had been offered to th« avia -or who made the first non-stop flight ►cross the Atlantic Ocean, and a dozen

or to Britishers had gathered' there to maJto the attempt. Among i&ein was Oaptain Afcock, later Sir John Akock, a famous ace during the war, who piloted the first English 'plan* that bombed Constantinople' Captain Aleock, with a navigator, Arthnr W Brown, also knighted later, hopped oft in June, 1919, s and astonished the universe by ftviSjr from Newfoundland to diiden. Iceland, in sixteen, hours and' twelve minutes It was ]ust six months later that fate overtook this intrepid aviator While flying in France, merely taking a sea 'plane to 'an exhibition at Houen, he miscalculated his distance from the earth, in a (og, and was instantly,killed when his 'plane struck the ground. < One of Captain Aluock's rivals in the transatlantic flight* was p.n airman who was equally well known among aviators Thus waa Harry & Hawker Hawker, was the first to hop off at Newfoundland, starting on 18th May, with Lieutenant.Commopdei Mackenzie Grieve as navigatoi In vain, the next day, they waited for ne^vs of him vi England Hawker arid his comrade and their 'pJane had disappeared People said that they h<td been diowncd in the ocean, but mi days later a Danish steamer, the Mary, came rolling into port with Hawkei and Gne\e on board I She had picked them up 850 miles off the coast or Iroland, floating alone;,' liaising-to Uuir frail craft Hwker's I'luri gtill held \ year latpr, July, 19J1, Hawker went aloft neii, HenJon, m England, to l#sfc a 'plane for the aerial deibj He was living probab'y 4000 ft up in the air w^ien, those who were watching •sivi hi 3 'plane suddenly careen and come plunging foi the earth Ha\Tj<er died in tho arms of the doctor who had brer- hastily summoned A coroner's jury found tho accident had been due to a sudden stroke of paralysis which the airman bad suffered His physician testified' that Hawker hid long been a victim of tuberculosis of the spine, and had heen -yarned against flying SIPw RfNS SMITHS DEATH Dunng tlio )eai* that Captain Akock and Hawker were busy with their efforts to fly ncroas the Atlantic, another Bnt hh avktor sprung into jirßmlrt*a«i 'by jpjJotiag -i -pWa front- Ba^tui |« , i

Australia It was Boss Smith, later Sir Boss Smith, who had had a gallant record for daring during the war. A few months ago, Sir Ross and his brother, Sir Keith Smith, were getting ready to fly around the world They had completed their plans and the feat seemed almost accomplished Early one moming Sir Boss arrived at Brooklands, where his machine was His brother was not at the field, and he went np with Lieutenant Bennett, a fnend of his At a height of 3000 feet above the gronnd the airman began a series of evolutions that he had gone through a hundred times in order to test thorough ly every strut and guy on his 'plane Those watching were interested but not alarmed, and when they saw the huge 'plane diving straight 'for the earth they only considered it a special sort of trial Sir Boss was killed instantly,' and Lieutenant Bennett lived but a few moments after being pat into an ambulance <. And so the list continnes Aviators are asking each other what is the'answer to it all Is a man who has come unharmed through exceptional peril "apt to pay too little heed to lesser dangers? Is it, after all, just a,matter of luck?