THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL. PORTLAND. SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 11. 191$.
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"Death is Bound to ComeS'
Predated Beachey, the Latest Victim V' ' J
Lf?5! hand of fleath for -Hakes them down and then reconstructs lying Can Be Made Safe. I V" V':;
117 Airmen? . them, testing each and every part so as to be vi ! f;, Ca V VSSvvS J
a Die to determine tne exact Btrain tne cran - - , a v r.v.vv.v-i.v" 1
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Art Smith. Accepted at
Successor of Lincoln Beach ey
in Supremacy of the Air. I
BY DELIA AUSTRIAN.
HAT will stay the
hand of death for
airmen?
The list of fatal
ities has 'grown
yearly In this coun
try and Europe until;
a perusal of It Is
heartsickenlng.
The fateful words of Lincoln Beachey,
whose plunge to death at San Francisco
made -him the latest victim of spectacular
aviation, hold nothing but doom for his
successors.
"Thr hav been ethers, and I might aa
well add my own name to the list,! for it is
bound to come."
y That was the statement he made last
summer. Three weeks ago he realized for
a moment the dreadful truth of it. J And al
though daring to an extreme, Beachey was
looked upon as a man who knew 'what he
was about when he was in the air.
. But now comes the man who will suc
ceed Beachey as a daredevil of th sky
Art Smith. Says Mr. Smith : "Beachey was
wrong, and so are they all wrong who look
upon air navigation as a mere tempting of
fate. I have no Idea that I will be killed,
and I shall loop just as many loops as ever
Beachey did. I helped build my own ma
chine, and that is what every man! must do
who wants to do stunts in the air. j
"It's the machine, not fate, that causes all
the catastrophes in aviation. I shall set
just as fast a pace now as any flyer ever did
and if aviators want to follow me let them
do it at their own peril, unless they heed
this tip: Know every nut and bolt in your
machine and either put them together your
self or see them put together.
j "An instrument of death Is what the
aeroplane has been termed by the! general
public, but I have always disagreed with
people who never go more than a few feet
above mother earth and then only when they
climb the steps to an elevated train or step
into a lift In a high building. . j
v ').-''
Safe Transportation, j
, "The aeroplane, in my opinion, is & safe
vehicle of transportation providing the man
at the helm and up to this time Be Is
usually the only passenger has studied not
only aviation but the secrets that 'are con
cealed in every puff of wind and every cloud
and, most of all, knows the construction of
the plane which is to convey him safely
thousands of feet above the ground. J i
"I do not mean that an aviator who
either constructs or supervises the Construc
tion of his heavier than air craft is immune
from' death, but I do insist that the knowl
edge that bis machine is perfectly built and
that all chances of a wire brace .breaking
or of the motor going wrong are removed
instills confidence and. makes the flyer de-',
void of fear of the grim reaper.
rrhe majority of the aviators in this
country seldom construct their cars, but de
pend upon the manufacturer to. furnish them
with machines that are ready, to take them.
to con-
lives to aviation Is Cal Rogers, the first to
make a transcontinental flight from New
York to San Francisco. This was done in a
Wright biplane. Later he was exhibiting at
Long Beach when a sea gull got into some of
the wires and stopped his control. This was
. an accident pure and simple. '
"St. Croix Johnstone was another of our
American aviators who met an untimely
death, and nobody knows the real cause. He
was one of the old-time flyers. , It was
while he was flying his fifty horse power '
Moisant monoplane at Grant Park, Chicago,
that his machine gave a sudden lurch and
he was thrown from many hundred feet to
his death. j
"Among the few women 'who have at
tained an International reputation is Harriet
Quimby. She was the first woman to be
given a license and made several record
flights. She was carrying a passenger in
her monoplane when a puff of wind upset
the guest, who sat behind her. His falling
upset the balance of the car and; she was
killed.
"Foremost among the English aviators is
the name of Gustave Hamel. He was lost
in a fog while crossing the channel. Hamel
Into the clouds as soon as they have ob
tained the license. These factory aero
planes are all right providing" the owner
Hakes them down and then reconstructs
them, testing each and every part so as to be
able to determine the exact strain the craft
can stand.
j I would never advise a man
struct a machine entirely himself, however.
Especially unless he has had years of prac
tical experience in mechanics and has made
a hard study of all the angles of aviation.
"Several of my unfortunate compatriots
have lost their battles to the grim reaper by
giving him a big handicap. I mean by that
that they have attempted to escape paying
fees to men holding the patent rights and
thereby have been forced to use machine
parts which were not capable of standing
the strain. As a result they left the ground
in a machine which was weakened before
the struggle began.
Military Sacrifices.
"If one will looked through the ,11st of
aviators killed during the last three years
he will find many names of army and navy
officers who hare offered up their lives not
in battle but in trial flights with United
States aeroplanes. Now, I can safely say
that the majority of the men. killed while
wearing the straps of the service were men
who were well trained in the art of flying
but who knew little of the construction of
their mounts.
"Of course, the army officers do not try
the famous loop the loop,' but their acci
dents happened mostly when a brace gave
way or their motors stopped, and this proves
my contention that preparation Is more than
50 per cent of the game. - - t
"I have too much respect for the dead to
indulge in criticism of their faults. ; But
many of the brave boys responsible for ad
vances In aviation died because they were
men of nerve who took a few lessons in
how to get off the ground and met. the
various dangers as they came, not pre
paring for them In advance. .
"In my opinion, Beachey met his death
not because of his daring stunts in the air,
because others have gone farther than
Beachey did on that fatal day, but because
of faulty construction in his machine.
Beachey was not a man to watch details..
"Again, I think that Beachey's machine
was too light for the terrific strain he must
have known would be placed upon It. Tbo
little monoplane weighed only 550 pounds.
The strain placed upon this machine in a
perpendicular drop must have been twice
what the wings of the plane could stand.
"Of course, there is a great deal of dar
ing connected with the art of flying. But
daring is found In every walk of life, and
nine out1 of ten of the feats that the onlooker
thinks hair-raising are mere play for the left Le Crotoy f or Hendon one Saturday;
capable aviator. when a fog came up and he lost his bearings.
"It is in the knowing not the' daring Torpedo boats and hydroplanes made a thor-
that the aviator is successful, and I hope ough search for him, but only the Wreck of
before long to convince every man, woman the machine was found. - 1 y
and child that my contention is correct- y "Weldon B. Cooke was another ex-
r Among the birdmen-who have given their, perienced aviator killed in. an exhibition
flight. It was on Sept. 17, 1914, that he was
exhibiting at Pueblo, Colo. A crowd was
enjoying his brilliant flights, when he sud
denly plunged 2,000 feet to his death. The
fatality was caused by a weakness in his car.
"When Eugene B. vEly made the unprece
dented feat of landing on the deck of the
cruiser Pennsylvania after a flight of twelve
miles he excited the greatest Interest among
naval and military officials. An aviator had
made a flight from a ship's deck, hut none
, Some of the Victims of Sky Navigation.
had effected landing from the shore. Ely,
in a Curtis biplane, left Selfridge field near
San Francisco and. flew twelve miles over
the open ocean. "r He landed without jarring
the delicate machinery . of . his craft. He
was killed in I October, 19U, in, Alabama
"Then there was Phil. Parme lee1, who was
one of the best in the game. He first used '
a Wright car and later he made one of. his
own design to avoid paying the patent
rights. He-was killed by being caught in an
s lr jockefr srhiLs testing ills, car, ... ; .
A score or more of others might be added
to this death list, and in nine Instances out
of ten the fatalities can be attributed to
some weakness of their craft' So it would
seem that Mr. Smith knows what he is talk
ing about when be says, "It's j,hf jriiu-hlaei
gpfexate-? , '-
i