KNIGHTS OF THE AIR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXIV, Issue 17672, 23 September 1919, Page 5

KNIGHTS OF THE AIR

THE ATLANTIC CROSSING.

MR. CHURCHILL'S TRIBUTE.

The achievement of Captain J. Alcock, D.5.0., and Lieutenant A. Whitten Brown, the two gallant young airluen who new across the Atlantic, ana who hav..s been knighted by the Kin,; was referred to by Mr. Winston Churchill at a luncheon given in their honour in London.

Mr. Ohm-drill said that '.by this achievement we assured ourselves that our civilisation combined the science of the twentieth century with all the virility and Jove of adventure of the knights or old. In 1492 Cristophcr Coluinbuu sailed across the Atlantic and discovered America; When we welcomed the'heroes of to-day, who had come back from the.other side in something iess than sixteen hours, we were in tne presence of another event of the same order as that stupendous one which revealed to Europe and Asia the boundless glories un'i possibilities vi new worlds.

How different were those two voyages in all except two conditions, the peril and tlw pluck. Columbus, in a voyage ol approximately ninety d;;ys, traversed this immense expanse of water; thenguests had come back in less than Sixteen hours, but into those sixteen hours were crammed the concentrated perils, and tlie same great human qualities were required as in that long earlier voyage. "Thin;; of.tlie broad Atlantic, the terrible waste of desolate waters, tossing in tumult under repeated and almost ceaseless storms, shrouded with s\v unbroken canopy of mist. Across this waste and through obscurity two human beings hurtling through the air, piercing clouds and darkness and keeping . Ihei'* mieiTißg path, in spite ot every difficulty, to their exact objective across tho«o hundreds of miles, and arriving almost on scheduled times.

"At £very moment in the voyage they are liable to destrutcion from a dron of water in n c arburetter, a spot of oil on tlieir plugs, a tiny grain of dirt in thoir feed-pipes, or from any of the other liundre<i-and-ono intricate causes which in the present state of aeronautics may drag an aeroplane to its fate. Ido not know what we shonli sdniire most in our guests—their audacity, determination, skill, science, their YickersVimy aeronlaup, the^r-Rolls-Royce engines, or their good fortune."

LOST SIGHT OF THE SKY

Captain Alcock said that after the first 40 minutes they saw the sky for only aTiout half an hour, at three in the morning, when about half-way. That brief glance enabled them to get cno op two s-ights on the stars and on the moon, which gave them their position. "This was very cheery, as up till thon we did not know exactly where we were. I don't think we actually flew upside down, but once we-were flying on a very steep spiral with a little spin, which is really wwse, I think, than flying upside down."

Lieutenant .Brown said they had nothing but the North Star to guide them until, with great efforts, without straining the engines. Captain Alcock climbed to 11,000. feet to let him have an opportunity of, finding the sun. At this height it was cold, arid the hinges of the ailerons froze, so that there was practically no lateral control. No doul>t the company would he anxious to know what was to be dono with the money. When Captain Alcock and ho landed from St. John the first thing they saw in a newspaper iv.-is ft paragraph headed, "Buy-.Tov Loan," and they made up their minds in two* minutes.

AMERICA'S ADMIRATION,

Mr. J. W. Davis, the American Ambassador, Bald nothing would be left undone on his side of the water to stamp this feats -vith the profound admiration of America and the American Government. Ho continued :—

"Where, in all the history of mankind, is there a romance to parallel this constant narrowing of the Atlantic Ocean? Columbus first set bounds to it. Then, after Columbus had discovered that, if the winds favoured you, yo;i could really reach something on the other side, Robert Fulton casino with his steamboat, end proved that the- winds had nothing at all to do with it.

"Noxt, after the steamship has established c:ominuniation, Cyrus Field tied'the two sides of the Atlantic with cables stronger than the steel of which they were made; and hardly was the romance of Atlantic cables forgotten before men began to whisper to each other hy means of the wireless. Now, to-day, a man sleeps one nisht in America and the next in Great Britain. (Loud cheers.) What is it hi if. the drying up of the Altantio itself? (Renewed cheers and laughter.) T recall but onp casein history where that feat wa« performed, but it wns not r t lasting feat <Lan2;hter.) My reeol. lection is that the Red Sea returned to its former habits very shortly; but this T believe to be a permanent reform.1'