AVIATION.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 861, 6 July 1910, Page 7

AVIATION.

FRESH STRING OF ACCIDENTS. . 810 SIMULTANEOUS FLICHT. CAUSE OF HERB, WACHTER'S DEATH. i J3y Telegraph—Press Association-Copyright. ' (Rec. July 5, 9.20 p.m.) i Paris, July 5. There was a great attendance at the Rhcims aviation meeting.. The weather for tho opening was gusty/ with rain, but was afterwards calm. " At one stago there were twenty aviators hying simultaneously. Eight accidents occurred, and three aeroplanes were smashed, M: Martinet being badly injured. Tho aeronautical experts are discussiug' Herr Wachter's fatal fall of yesterday, and they insist on the danger of aeroplanjug in a strong, wind. This possesses a peculiar fascination for most aviators, but. overstrains tho frames of the machines. |

LESSONS OF ZEPPELIN DISASTER. WEATHER WISDOM NEEDED. (Rec. July 5, 9.20 p.m.) Berlin, July 5. Connt Zeppelin states that the disaster to his latest dirigible airship, Zeppelin the Seventh, was due to its being caught in an upward whirlwind. This lifted it to a great height, as previously described, and caused the subsequent fall. V. . ■ . - The lesson of the accident, Count Zeppelin says, is not the building of a different type of airship, but the observation of the weather so as to avoid such winds as that which destroyed his airship. It was as necessary for aeronauts is for shipmasters to foresee and avoid' typhoons.

M.' DE LESSEPS IN CANADA. CIRCLES OVER MONTREAL,. .. , (Rec. July 5, 9.20 p.m.). ' Montreal, July 5. . M. do Lesseps, tho French aviator, who recently (lew from Calais to Dover, has performed another feat here. At a height of 2000 feet he circled round tho city, covering a distance of 30 miles in 49 minutes. ' ! ■ AEROPLANE SPEEDS. THE AIRMAN'S PRESENT LIHITA- • TIONS. Writing of the feat, of M. de Lesseps in crossing the English Channel, "The Times" said:— , "SI.. de-Lesseps crossed the Channel in thirty minutes, which roughly represents an average speed of- about 45 miles an hour. That may he regarded at present .as about the,normal speed of'a machine heavier than air. It is in a sense an obligatory speed, which the aeroplane must reach in .order to travel at all. For, unliko the more familiar means of locomotion, the aeroplano depends upon its own speed to maintain its position. Tho leisurely aeroplane, capable of being driven at will'at a low speed, may some day be provided by science, but it is not within l'each at present. There are secrets of natural flight which, we have not yet captured, but it would be rash to conclude that they are for.ever,.beyond our grasp. When we know them we may bo able to iinitate..„the l ,va.ryingjs£eedsrof a-bird, and perhaps even, the stately repose of the.soaring eagle. For the present, however, there,is ho rest or pause for the quickly.'revolving motor, and nothing but descent with more or less risk of disaster' if anything interrupts even for a few seconds its quivering activity. For the aeroplane there is no speed limit except the inferior one below which the airman may not sink except upon penalty of becoming the helpless victim -jai gravitation."