SECOND CHANNEL FLIGHT. •

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 864, 9 July 1910, Page 11

SECOND CHANNEL FLIGHT. •

• Comte Jacques de Lesseps, grandson ofthe famous engineer, who created the; .Suez Canal, lias flown across .the Channel. from ■ Calais to' Dover oil his monoplane, thus winning .the Ruinart prize of .£SOO. The utmost interest, was displayed in/the flight on the French coast. It was 3.37 • in. the afternoon when M. de Lesseps left Calais and 4.22 when he touched oh the. Dover .side', so that the. flight occupied precisely three-quarters of an hour, or about twelve minutes longer than that of M. Bleriot last July. Although .there were many hundreds of watchers on tlia Dover side, i not half a. .dozen were iu hailing.distance when the aviator landed. "When the news became linown, M. de Lesseps was enthusiastically welcomed.' He intended flying back across the Channel, but the mistiness of the weather prevented him. M. de Lesseps, in describing his voyage, said: "The contrary winds at first'bothered'me. I tried to. • escape them by rising very high—at one time I should judge 2000 feet. There was no appreciable difference; however, and at, one point .the machine seemed. to be standing still.. Afterwards, probably' when I was lialf-way across) the wind dropped, and for a, few minutes ideal conditions prevailed. Then 1 ran,into a mist, which becaijie denser and denser.. My idea had been to land near .'the Bleriot monument, but I had got too far to the eastward. . I saw . a bare field removed from trees or houses, and I rightly judged this to be a most suitable, place to'land. By this time the-reservoirs of the machine had-got out of order, and I should have had to descend soon."