THIS AGE OF FLIGHT

Evening Star, Issue 21505, 1 September 1933, Page 12

THIS AGE OF FLIGHT

SMALL SOY UNIMPRESSED I tried an interesting experiment a few days ago, when 1 took my son, aged eight, for his first flight. The machine was one of the latest. I anticipated that it would be as much a novelty for me, whose experience as a pilot had been confined to old ones, as for the boy, who had never been in the air (writes Jack Heming in the London ‘Daily Telegraph’). I had underestimated the ease. When 1 had lifted the boy from the cockpit and planted him on the ground, 1 ‘‘Well, did you like it?” “ Yes,” he replied, a shade dubiously, “ but why uo stunting? ” For a while I was staggered. 1. recalled my first flight, sixteen years ago, I still remember the ’ineffable thrill of ft—the noise, the reaction to lift as the machine takes off, tho way world seems ,to tilt at the_ turns, and the breathlessness of the dive to land. I could still sketch roughly the country over which we flew. v And hero was this modern boy taking it all as a matter of course! The flight lasted about a quarter of an hour. Several steepish turns were done; we flew over our house and several nhmistakeablo landmarks, and landed fairly fast. Of all these phenomena he talked not at all. Two things were uppermost in his mind. The first was the effect of the wind on his open-necked collar—the tips vibrated stingingly against his cneeks —and _ the second, the sight of one man rolling a cricket pitch in the middle of a large field. “ He looked so silly in the middle of that big space.” At first, I repeat, 1 was staggered. Yet, on reflection, it is natural enough. The air age has dawned. To the children of to-day flying is an accepted fact; just as motoring is to the elders. It must be so to any child who caii read. The newspapers daily record flying news in pictures and print, and fiction has done its share. Only a few years ago almost any air activity was regarded as news. To-day, when the Prince of Wales flies regularly and; the Air Minister has taken his “ ticket,” it merely has its place with other forms of transport. Tho ultimate result of this air-minded-ness offers profitable conjecture. Even now a weet-end visit to one of the many flying clubs founded all over the country reveals that the annihilation of space on earth has begun. At Heston one Saturday I heard three private owners discussing where they siiould go- Scotland, Holland, Belgium, and France were rejected. Eventually they set off for Berlin—just for a week-end jaunt! Soon all Europe will be within reach of the week-ender, which also means that' England will bo within the reach of all Europe. _ At that time, and it is not far off, flying will be as popular as motoring, and there will_ accordingly be a wide exchange of visits. It points to a bright future for the aviation industries of the world, and that is well for the nation which makes the best aeroplanes.