KNIGHTS OF THE AIR

Evening Star, Issue 17154, 22 September 1919, Page 10

KNIGHTS OF THE AIR

“ CONCENTRATED PERILS." The achievement of Captain J. Alcoek, D.5.0., and Lieutenant A. Whitten Brown, the tv.o gallant young airmen who flew across the Atlantic, and who have been knighted by the King, was referred to by Mr Winston Churchill at a luncheon given in their honor in London. Mr Churchill said: “By this achievement we assured ourselves that our civilisation combined the science of the twentieth century with all the virility and love of adventure of the knights of old. In 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic and discovered America. When we welcomed the heroes of to-day. who had come back from the other side in something less than 16 hours, wo were in i.:e nref-cncc of another event of the same order as that stupendous one which revealed to Europe and to Asia the- boundless glories .aid possibilities of new worlds. How different wore those two-voyages in all except two conditions, the peril and t!ie pluck. Columbus, m a voyage of approximately 90 days, traversed' this immense expanse of water; their guests had come Pack in less tUgn 16 hours, bid into those 16 horns were crammed the concentrated perils and tho same great human qualities which were required in that long earlier vovage. " Think’ of the bread Atlantic, the terrible waste of desolate v.-atcrs, teasing in tumult under repeated and almost ceaseless storms, -shrouded with an unbroken oanopv of mist. Across this waste and through this obscurity two human beings hurtling through the air, piercing clouds and darkness and keeping their unerring path, in spite of every difficulty, to their exact objective across those hundreds of miles, and arriving almost on scheduled

time. “At every moment in the voyacro they are liable to destruction from a drop of water in the carburetter, a spot of oil on their plugs, a tiny grain of dirt in their feed pipes, or from any ortho other huu-dred-and-one intricate causes which in the present state of aeronautics may drug an aeroplane to its fate. I do not know what we should admire most in our guests—their audacity, determination, skill, science, their Vickers-Vimy aeroplane, their RollsRoyce engines, or their good fortune.” LOST SIGHT OF THE SKY. Captain Alcock said that after the first 40 minutes they saw the sky for only about half an hour, at o in the morning, when about halfway. That brief glimpse enabled them to get one or two sights on the stars and on the moon, which gave them their position. “This was very cheery, as up till then we did not know exactly where we were. I don’t think we actually flew upside down, but once we were flying on a very steep' spiral with alittle spin, which is really worse, I think, than Hying upside down.” Lieutenant Brown said they had nothing but the X orth Star to guide them until, with great efforts, without straining the enables, Captain Alcock climbed to 11,00011 to lot him have r*n opportunity of finding the sun. At this height it was very cold" and the hinges of the ailerons froze, so that there was practically no lateral control. No doubt the company would be artxious.to know what was to ho done with the money. When Captain Alcock and he landed from St. Johns the first thing thev saw in a newspaper was a paragraph headed, ‘ Buy Joy Loan,’ ami they made ; up their minds in two minutes. AMERICA’S ADMIRATION. Mr J. W. Davis, the American Ambassador, said nothing would be left undone on his side of the water to stamp Ibis feat with the profound admiration of America.

and the American Government. Ho continued ;

“ Where in all the history of mankind is there a romance to parallel this constant narrowing- ox the Atlantic Ocean? Columbus first set bounds to it. Then after Columbus had discovered that if the winds favored you you could really reach something cm the oilier side, Robert Fulton came with his stoar/ioat, and proved that the winds had nothing a-t all to do with it. A'ext, after the steamship had established communication, Cyrus Field tied the two sides of the Atlantic, with cables stronger than the steel of which they were made; and hardly was the romance of Atlantic cables forgotten before men began to whisper to each other by means of the wireless. Now, to-day, a man sleeps one night in America and the next in Great Britain. (Loud cheers.) What is it but the drying up of the Atlantic itself? (Renewed cheers and laughter.) 1 recall but one case in history where that feat was performed, but it was not a lasting feat. (Laughter.) M.y recollection is that the Red Sea returned to its former habits very shortly; but this 1 believe to be a permanent reform.”