The "Daily Mail" £10,000 Aero Race

Progress, Volume VI, Issue 12, 2 October 1911, Page 834

The "Daily Mail" £IO,OOO Aero Race

Whatever we may have to say against the HarmsAvorth influence in other affairs (and there are many who have much to say) in motoring, both on land and aloft, the HarmsAvorth influence has been all to the good. The last example of this is the £IO,OOO cheque which constituted the incentive to British and Continental airmen to jog, or attempt to jog, around the Blessed British Isles. Despite the tropical weather Londoners took immense interest in the event. Whatever the future might hold, the start was most auspicious, and the scenes at Brooklands were remarkable. The story of the race would be a long one if told in detail, so I must be terse (even at the expense of my journalistic reputation After a few preliminary delays, the aviators started off, and as they whizzed at a mile a niinue gait over the difficult country between Brooklands and Hendon, they soon illustrated the advantages of the directness of aerial flight. Lieut. Conneau was first away, and landed at Hendon within twenty : minutes. After him sped Astley, and in quick succession came the other fifteen starters, among

whom were numbered the very flower of the aero world. There were thirty entrants for the race. Twenty lined up to start, and, of these, three met with accident at the post. That was on a Saturday. Monday, at 4 a.m. (dreadful hour for a Londoner to be up!) the trek from Ilendon to Edinburgh, thence via Stirling, Glasgow, Carlisle and Manchester, and home via Bristol to Brooklands and Ilendon. By the Tuesday morning there were practically only two men left in the race: Beaumont (Lieut. Coimeau) and Vedrines. All the rest of the field, more or less, hors do combat. England has been outclassed; her contingent of aviators, even though some of them possessed similar machines to that which "Beaumont" won on, failed to complete the circuit. Valentini (Deperdussin monoplane) battled on, after the race was over, and got through a week, late! Cody, with Anglo-American pluck, arrived soon after on his homemade two-ton "bus."

We must rest content with the result of the race. The best man on the best machine won. He showed his superiority as an aviator in many ways. He excelled in nursing his engine. lie steered an accurate course. He rested himself from time to time at the various controls. His Hying time for 1010 miles was 22 hours 28 minutes and 18 seconds. Vedrines, the much-pitied runner-up, took 1 hour and 10 minutes longer. The —nowhere. Between these two men and our hundreds of amateur potterers there is indeed a vast difference. "Flying is easy," these people say. This is rank bunkum, for an aviator to endure he must not alone be able to merely work his control levers; he must be a first-class motor mechanic; he must have more than a smattered knowledge of meteorology; and lie must have the instinct of the homing pigeon, so that he may drive through fog and darkness without losing his bearings. Beaumont, alias Lieut. Conneau, of the French .■ Navy, has come, has seen, has conquered. His example is worthy of emulation. This can only be consummated by intense study of the theory before attempting the practice. As for Vedrines, we all feel sorry for him, and the plethora of bad luck he encountered. But, as Bernard Shaw has it, the Englishman is too prone to gush with absurd sentimentality.- An instance

of this is the weeping there has been over Vedrines, and which there was over Dorando in the marathon foot race. By the rules of the "Daily Mail" £IO,OOO air race there was only one prize. He who wins it, therefore, and not he who loses, should get the bulk of the public's praise and plaudit.