'PLANES AND BIRDS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 47, 23 August 1930, Page 15

'PLANES AND BIRDS

EAGLES WILL ATTACK

GULLS KEEP COMPANY

I Swooping down ia attack on an aeroplano above Buffalo Valley, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a bald eagle lost his life in the whirling propeller. Encounters between birds and airmen have not been infrequent in various parts of the United States. In Europe the natural flyers and the mechanical flyers also have come to grips. Major o'. 0. Turner, air correspondent of ;tho Londom "Daily Telegraph," has assembled a number of such instances. Most air pilots can speak of curious meetings with, birds and winged in.sects, ho says, and their experiences are now attracting the attention , of ornithologists and entomologists. Unfortunately, few pilots are able to name the species whose strange doings they witness, and probably the only student of birds Who flies in order to study them is the Duchess of Bedford. During the air race from Paris to Madrid in 1911 two famous French pilots, Vedrhies and Gibert, each had an encounter with an' eagle in the Pyrenees. Yedrines evaded his • assailant by manoeuvring out ot! the way, but Gibert put the challcngor to rout by firing at him ivith a revolver. Generally speaking, birds are indifferent to ■ aircraft, but they are at times inquisitive. A war pilot says that on several occasions he had. tho company of peewits, usually flying in pairs and keeping pace with the machine for considerable distances by its side or a little in front. It may have been chance, but it seemed intenj tional. I Pilots agree that birds flying in formation will not turn aside for aircraft. An airline pilot encountered a vast flock of big birds near tho Alps. They were flying westward, in close formation. There were thousands of them, almost Wing to wing. They flew through • a .cloud..without ' breaking formation. They wore right in. his path arid' lie "was compelled to swerve suddenly to avoid' the danger. One of them was struck and killed. Some time ago a pilot arriving at Lc Bourgot reported that ho had run into a great flock of big birds in formation near Boulogne. Two of them were killed by the machine and .the body of one was caught in. tho wires. Its wings were 5 feet 2 inches across. A pilot who has made a largo number of flights from Southampton to Guernsey and back says that it is a common experience to find, seagulls keeping up with the machine all the way between these- points. The machino normally flies at about seventy miles per hour and it appears, therefore, that tho seagull is capable of this speed. The executive committee of the "Wairaiapa Automobile Association last week decided to ask tho General Manager of Kailways to treat the matter of equipping the engines on tho Wairarapa line with cloctrie light as one of urgency. A remit is to be forwarded to tho annual meeting of tho North Island Motor Union advocating that the roadway approaching all level railway crossings be bitumemsed or otherwise treated by local bodies to prevent cars skidding when brakes are applied at such crossings; also a remit dealing with the question of petrol sellers having the right not to supply petrol to persons who arc obviously under the influence of liquor, and a further remit to make it compulsory for sill cycles to have tho rear mudguard painted white.