SPEED IN THE AIR

Evening Star, Issue 20316, 26 October 1929, Page 29

SPEED IN THE AIR

SIX-MILE-A-MINUTE MEN A remarkable psychological study are the aerial sp„edmei., who, in the Schneider race of 1929, may bo devouring distance at the enormous speed of 36U miles an hour, or si: mile*. a minute, wrote Mr Harm Harper in the ‘ Daily Mail ” a few days before the great event which was won by Great Britain. To begin witb they are amazingly tit, as bard as nails. But in addition to their wonderful physique these young mon. by accustoming themselves to progressive accelerations of movement ana to evoaitions carried out at a pace greater than has evei been attempted by human beings before, seem to be acquiring something—some sort ot a new sense—which is denied to ordinaly people who travel at more noma! speeds. Even when they are talking something if this added power repeals itself. They seem, although they betray not a suggestion of nerves, to bo keyed up to ratlmr a higher plane than ordinary men. They speak quickly, incisively They jump like a flash to the point of an argument. They are impatient of any kind of time-wast-ing routine Their eyes, too, tell a tale of tremendous concentration, of a lightning judgment of # speed and distance. Their look reminds one of that watchful gaze of the seaman. Yet there is something more in it than that—something far more penetrating; because young men, as they rush through the air at a pace that would paralyse the faculties of ordinary folk, have to d- things with a quickness and a precision which demand a co-ordination that ha- never been attained before between brain, n-rve, and muscle. They bear, in fact, the imprint of supermen. And it is supermen that thev are—supermen in the delicacy with which they handle these winged promf'tiles: supermen also in the amazing control they have learned to exercise over their minds and bodies. Yet never for an instant, marvellous pilots though they are becoming, do they deviate from that fine R.A.F. tradition which mak-s them quiet, _ courteous, and completely unassuming; doing their iob serenely and without display, even though it entails sitting _nf the contr ds of roaring which eat up the miles at such appalling speeds.