EAGLES AND AEROPLANES.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1486, 8 July 1912, Page 9

EAGLES AND AEROPLANES.

■ If bullets cannot reach aeroplanes, | eagles may. This is an ingenious idea which some officers at Nice are said to be trying to demonstrate. It was just ,a year ago, during the famous flight from Paris to Madrid, that 11. (iibcrt, one- of tho competitors of JI. Vodrijic;, reported that ho had been attacked by an eaglo when flying across tho Pyrenees, Ho was so annoyed by the Ir'rd that ha had.to tako out his revolver and frighten it away by firing several shots, but the result was that he lost his bearings, and had to come down. Tho eaglo prevented him from continuing Ins flight. Perhaps it was tho import of /his adventure that suggested :i novo! idea to the officers at Nice. Tliay decided to train six strong young cades for destroying aeroplanes. They starved >ho .birds, and then placed meat for. them on tho wings of an aeroplane.. Tho eagles dnitod for tho meat with such ravenous appetites that they toro the wings of the aeroplane to pieces. The idea is that a host of eagles set loofe in tho neighbourhood of hostile a-oplaues would dart on. them and destroy thvni, or at least disconcert tho pilot. Tho story is told in tie ''Armeo Moderne," and we are assured tiiat tho eagles havo also been traind not to be frightened by shots uuu tlio explosions of the motor. Meat was placed in a similar way' on models of a steerablo balloon, and the eagles, in cutting at tho meat, also -destroyed the balloon. But we are not (old how tho lirds are to bo' trained not to; destroy the aj-mpirnci of tho army they iro to protect, aiid'to exereisa T.hcir elaws only on ho aeroplanes of the enemy. "' *