HIS LIMIT WAS THE SKY

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 41, 18 February 1931, Page 8

HIS LIMIT WAS THE SKY

Study of the air and air ■currents, with a view to improving aerial navigation and to lessening the resistance of speed vehicles on land, is still a nebulous and shapeless affair lo the man in the street; nor is the development of meteorology, in its relation lo air transport, yet appreciated by the general public. The new view of the air, not as something that always lets you clown, but as something quite capable of keeping you up. if you understand il, is not yet in general circulation, l'lil the death of scicnlisls like Maurice GibIclf. (killed wilh others in llic RlOl, as lold la yesterday's issue) is a re-

Study of the air and air ■currents, with a view to improving aerial navigation and to lessening the resist-

minder that science is afoot on these quests, just as thirty years ago it was afoot on ihe wireless trail. Long before the public realise, the spade work is already begun. The late Mr. Giblett devoted his life to "the study of the atmosphere as the highway of the airship." The world at large has become aware of this through his sensational death; otherwise, the knowledge would probably have leaked out only when his work was done, say, ten or fifteen years hence. It is some compensation to know, however, lhat modern advances are the fruit of the labours of many workers. When one is removed, another fills the gap. The field of study—from the wind tunnel to the open sky—is too wide to be dependent on one mind, however brilliant. It is also 100 great a field to be closed by one catastrophe, like lhat of RlOl. The story of Maurice Giblett merely adds a personal and human touch to the record of a great adventure. With scientific impassivity, the adventure proceeds.