LATEST AIR STUNT

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 306, 22 September 1919, Page 5

LATEST AIR STUNT

lieutenant Omer Locklear,' the .'.first man to leap from, one. flying aeroplane to another just below, reversed this feat at the Pan-American Aeronautic Convention at Atlantic City recently ,by catching a, rope ladder thrown from an aeroplane above him, and climbing into it. Says the'"Aerial Age," describing this feat: 1 . • "Sensational acrobatics that made even Eddie Stinson, heretofore the most.finished of.the air pilots who have been amazing the throngs .at, tho Atlantic C&ty airport, hold his breath from.his 'orchestra seat,' a little , off £o one side of hie own aeroplane, featured when Lieutenant Omer Locklear, former army, sky-skipper, mounted five times from one aeroplane to another by means of a rope ladder swiugin" clear in the air. Crowds below, who had been told that the lieutenantj who vus the first man to jump from a plana above to the one undorn&ith, would attempt to reverse the order, could see him standing upright on the upper .wing, and reaching for the laddei' si, ilfle macluno manoeuvred by Lieutenant Melvon Elliott hovered over a second piloted by Lieutenant Shirley Short. But it 'was Eddie Stinson who brought the real story of the manoeuvres to the ground. "'"I have seen some nice ' balancing and daiing diving of aeroplanes, but these two pilots and Ljeutenant Locklear have shown me something new, declared Stinson, wlio himself was' chief of aerial acrobatics in Eouth-western arm> flying fields throughout the war. 'While Lieutenant Locklear was swaying back and forth on top of the &hort maohine Lieutenant Elliott swooped down from above, and so much confidence did thoso two drivers Il&vo in each other that the maohinee actually kissed each other, making it necessary for Lieutenant Locklear to drop and stretch out flat on top of the plane.. Yet with cool daring lie flipped upright again, and grabbed for the ladder as they pulled away. _ "'lt was the most Temarkable aenal stunt. It was one of the most daring bits of game flying I have ever seen. Eddie had been up with a photographer, trailing the two planes throughout the trips. Crowds below knew nothing of the aerial kiss, but they saw the machines so close together that they looked as • one scooting through the sky over 1000 ft. in the air.. Lieutenant Locklear, baffled by the wind, made three desperate trip 3 aoross the'field standing up on the wings of the aeroplane while the throngs below nervously clutched one another, fearing that he would bo dashed to death at any instant. Just to show that he was still perfectly cool, he proceeded to climb all over the aeroplane as it 6woopsd down within 108 ft. of the ground, once hanging by a precarious 'hold "'to tho slcid at the extreme tip of the Tight wing, and again hanging by his knees from the axle of the landing gear beneath tho fuselage, permitting the wind to swing him baok and forth head down like a pendulum. The intrepid aviators demonstrated that it would bo possible to change plane if the one you are travelling on catchos fire."