MADE FLYING HISTORY

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 January 1938, Page 9

MADE FLYING HISTORY

THE FARMANS RETIRE One of the penalties of the nationalisation of the French aircraft industiy is the loss of the genius and experience of such men as the Farman Brothers. The retirement of AIM Henri, Maurice and Dick Farman has been announced in Paris. Their factories have been nationalised, and they decline to stay in the business as employees. The Farmans were born in France of British parentage. Their rise to fame is like a romance. Henri and Maurice, as lads, went into the bicycle business. In those days it was the natural transition to motor cars. Henri drove in the first Gordon Bennett contest.

He was the fifth Frenchman to obtain a flying certificate; his brother, Maurice was the sixth. Both made notable flights, and Henri won innumerable prizes and trophies. The two machines which took part in the London-Manchester* race in 1910 were Farmans, one flown by Louis Paulhan and the other by Mr. C. Gra-ham-White. Henri Farman worked for hours on Paulhan’s machine, and inspired that pilot with advice and support. Paulhan won. The Henri Farman and Maurice Farman type of planes were distinct. After the war, design of both military ij.nd civil machines was undertaken by the Farmans, and at the present time (the air correspondent of the “Daily I’elegraph” writes) the name of Farman is perpetuated in big and small air liners, in torpedo bombers, in a big four-engined bomber, and in other ' military types.