FATHER VAUGHAN IN A BIPLANE

New Zealand Tablet, 29 April 1915, Page 31

FATHER VAUGHAN IN A BIPLANE

Father Bernard Vaughan, after his recent biplane flight, told a press representative that he believed he was the first priest who had ever sailed through tde air, and he was proud of the fact. ‘ Not bad for an old man of sixty-nine,’ he said, ‘to risk a journey to the clouds. It was my first flight towards heaven, but (with a twinkle in the eye) 1 am hoping it won’t be the last.’ Father Vaughan said some of his friends were rather doubtful as to the wisdom of his making the experiment, ‘ but what is good enough for our gallant airmen is good enough for meor any other man,’ he said. - ‘ I wanted to know something of what our fliers experience, and as the machines are made now there is not much danger. If you went through the aircraft factory" and saw the scrupulously careful manner in which every little bit of the machine is made and fitted together, and how thoroughly all the parts are tested, you would not be afraid to make a voyage in any of the military aeroplanes. ‘ If you were on the look-out for risks you would find, if you could see the complex machinery of the human body, that there was even a danger in living.’ He said a pilot from the aircraft factory took him aloft, and they had a cross-country flight of forty miles, ascending to a height of about 4000 feet. ‘Except in the first few minutes of- the ascent, when all my attention was devoted to holding- on like grim death, I was very comfortable,’ said Father Vaughan. l lt was a biplane that carried us, and I sat in front of the pilot, well protected from the cold and it was cold—by a leather jacket. * We went along smoothly, except for an occasional “bump’’ when a gust of wind buffeted us, and I could hardly tell that we were moving. " The only evidence was the gradually moving panorama of the country underneath. , ‘ It was so clear that every object on the earth could be distinctly made out, and I felt that I could drop a bomb -on any spot below to an inch. As we travelled sometimes at the rate of ,75 miles, an hour, that might have been, perhaps, rather difficult.’ y V