AVIATORS THRILLING DESCENT

Evening Star, Issue 14529, 3 December 1910, Page 8

AVIATORS THRILLING DESCENT

On rim very day of the funeral of tho unfortunate- M. Chavez, the record tor high firing he held during his lifetime was broken' by the aviator Wynmallen, at Monniiei.;.'! lo Grand. Hitherto all Iho gre.it, altitude n-'oids, excepting that of M. i’aiilhan, were held hy nionopianists, lint M. Wynmallen. who a new .star on the horiz.ou of aviation, was determined to prove Unit biplanes could rise as high as monoplanes. He has been practising on a Fa row n machine for Mine time at Mourmehin, arid on several oeaaiions 7'oisc to verv meat heights. At G. 23 on the morning' of (huffier 1 he idartid <;n a fiichfc wliii-h was to beat the world’s record anew, lie rose to such a dizzy height that the immc.-n.-v biplane soon became only a speck in the clear bine .sky, and for corrto moments disappeared altogether from view, A ftrango thing then happened, as M. Wynmallen afierwards explained. When ids barometer marked the ahitudoof 2,/89 metres (9,120 ft 1. exactly 100 metres higher than the worlds record, the supplv of os-f-eri'-e .gave -ml. and rite motor c-toppod. The situation is Lie most thrilling that the imagination can enceive. One asks how the aviator letumed to the car til alive. Bui i-kilhd aviators have now ae.l snieli i -mfideia e in t heir machines that' t'hev pr-f nn fraL which are little fhovt of !ciri"i; |~ i:r. M. Vvyninallea cimplv planed //own from that dizzy heigh!, keeping hi.s machino steadily at I he'viimind migC, and landed safely at 8.26 near Ihe point whence ho had started. The dost,an. v. hit'll, comparatively speak* jug. v.-as a vertiginous cue. look exactly thirteen, minim s. whereas the upward flight, in wide mdcs. took one hour forty* five minutes. When at a height of 8,200 ft the cold was intense. and the carburettor froze. When coming down the biplan* struckAnatiy irregular aerial currents, and it was with some; difficulty that the a via lot maintained the proper course. As hit motor was no longer working the slightest deviation might have been, fatal. M. Wynmallen is only twenty-two yean of age. He is a native of Holland, and •began to practise flying only two month* ago. The altitude records tempted hint from the beginning, and one, of his first flights was to a height, of more than 3,600 ft. His next was 3,900 ft. and on hi* last he rase to a height of B,oool’t. — Parifl correspondent ‘ Daily, Telegraph.’