AIRMEN AND BIRDS

Evening Star, Issue 19409, 18 November 1926, Page 14

AIRMEN AND BIRDS

Birds have been flying for countless thousands of years; man for only twenty-one—-the first flight in an engine-driven, mancarrying, iioavio.r-than-B.ir machine was made by Mr Orville Wright twenty-one years ago —yet in this short time he has equalled many of the feats performed by his little rivals, and in some instances surpassed them (says Oliver (J. Pike, F.Z.S., in the ‘Daily Mail 1 ). But it is in gliding that birds boat man, for they all poasess that wonderful instinct known as the wind cense. They take every advantage of The varying currents, and they will, with the assistance of any slight wind, rise to heights with very little wing movement. I have watched buzzards soar in a spiral until almost out of sight, and there was no perceptible movement of the wings. On one side of fie spiral there is a wind which helps them forward; the wings are manoeuvred to take every Advantage of ibis current, and it takes them round and at the same time upwards until the circle is completed. Man has loomed the loop; flown upside down; travelled in the air horizontally in the pattern of a corkscrew; performed the • most amazing diving feats; side-twisted upon, his back, and turned in a few yards while travelling full speed when a great cliff loomed up through the fog. I have seen fulmar petrels perform all these feats with the exception of the corkscrew movement. The tumbler pigeon will loop the loop; the raven, when angry, will side-turn on to his back; the lapwing will twist and turn in a downward dive; and in all these feats the birds without any effort regain their original position in the air, Man, on the other hand, when imitating the same performances, will make mistakes, and most of the bad accidents I saw while I was in the Air Force were brought about by the pilot being unable to regain control of his machine while. stunting. On one occasion two pilots collided while flying at a height of B,oooft, both crashing to the ground. I have seen two birds meet head on, yet in the fraction of a second both put on the brake, as it were, and the force of the impact was checked to such an extent that they were able to fly onwards with no ill-effects.