WHY M. PEGOUD FLIES UPSIDE DOWN.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 15 November 1913, Page 8

WHY M. PEGOUD FLIES UPSIDE DOWN.

A LIFE-SAVING MISSION

I flew over to Brooklands on Thursday last week to watch another man fly. That man, 1 need hardly tell you, was Pegoud. But it is not Pegoud the brave but Pegoud the pioneer that I am anxious to deal with. For above all Pegoud is a pioneer with a great lesson to teach.

He likes the cheers of the great crowds who welcome him when smiling he comes to earth. For Pegoud has a warm heart, but he would, 1 am sure, like it even better if the crowds who cheer him really understood his purpose in flying upsideAdown. He is no showman.

His looping the loop, his upside-dowa flights, his general acrobatic feats in the air are all of the utmost value to pilots throughout the world. We shall have proof of this-, I am sure, in the near future. Pegoud has shown us what it is possible to do with a modern machine. In his first attempt to fly upside-down he courted death. Like all pioneers, he was taking liberties with the unknown element. No man before him had attempted the feat. . It is true that men have been upside-down in the air, but they were turned over by sudden gusts of wind* and in most cases were killed. In his first flight Pegoud faced the unknown. He came through wi^h success. He prbved1 the feat possible! By repeating it frequently he has proved its practical value^ and herein lies the undoubted value of these flights.

.In these singular movements Pegoud is all the time rehearsing accidents and showing how easy it is for a pilot to recover equilibrium providing he remains perfectly calm and clear-headed. Any one of his extraordinary positions might be brought about by adverse elements.1 It is quite conceivable that a sudden gust of wind might turn the machine completely over. Hitherto any pilot iir such circumstances would give himself up for lost. Pegoud has taught xis what to do in such a case. It is questionable, of course, whether the pilot would show the Pegoud nerve.

But Pegoud's flights have, I am sure, given us all a new confidence.

Again, in a gale the machine might be upset at many different angles. Pegoud has shown us that it,is easily possible to recover from such predicaments. He has dealt with nearly every kind of awkward position into which one might be driven in a gale of wind or in a flight over mountains where air currents prevail. While others have thought and theorised over what they might do in the event of their machines being thrown out of the normal position, the Frenchman has placed himself in every conceivable position that might be brought about in an accident not directly attributed to any flaw in the machine. Hq has thus" gained evidence which will be of the utmost value to present and future pilots, and which will, I am sure, in the fuWe prove a factor of signal importance in the preservation of life in the air.

M. Bleriot has told me ' that this is but the beginning of the experiments which he hopes to carry out with the assistance of Pegoudj Pegoud is to continue his life-saving mission. He will fly shortly in a machine which will be fitted with petrol and oil tanks so constructed that they can feed the engine either way up. At present the engine stops when it is upside down. This will enable the pilot to fly upside-down at any height, even only ten feet above tile ground, and for any distance. In addition, M. Bleflot is to build a machine fitted with a reverse propeller, enabling it to fly backward's.—Gustav Hamel: Daily Mail, October 4.