AEROPLANES FOR £200.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XL, Issue XL, 3 December 1909, Page 4

AEROPLANES FOR £2OO.

The Fashion of Flying. One can gauge the fast progress of , the flying rtiachine in popular favor by the fact that following the Rheims aviation . contests one Parisian firm alone secured orders for no fewer than seventy-six aeroplanes, many wellknown English people being among the customers. It is surprising states a representative of a London paper, to See the new shops that are being opened in different quarters of Paris to supply the products of the new industry. "We can furnish a machine in a fortnight," runs one firm's advertisement. "We can supply you with a flying mrchine .'of any make," Bays another advertisement, not always to be relied upon, but the bona fide firm mentioned declare that they could in ordinary circumstances deliver an aeroplane at a month's notice Their price for a small model, carrying the pilot, is only £4OO. The medium one, for one passenger and the pilot, is £760, and the largest one of all, on which two or three passengers can be carried, which is good for high speed, is furnished for £IO4O. The same firm informed the writer that they had already , secured a large site outside of Paris and a big company is in formation to take up the business. A feature of the commercal aspect of the bpot is that all the leading aviators who went to Rheims intended to launch out after the meeting- as aeroplanes contractors. They have reaped glorious laurels and the plaudits of the public, but what apparently pleases them most is the financial success in prospect.; Half a dozen at least of " those principal champions at Rheims, it is said, will ahortly be at the head of important aeroplane companies. On the other hand a well-known aviator —Mr Santos Dumont—with less commercial instinct, but with commendable public spirit, announced recently at the conclusion of a very successful flight that with the desire to promote aviation he intends to make the patents of his aeroplane public property, so that anyone could obtain plana from him and construct one for himself. , The Co3t of the machine, including the motor, was £2OO.