THE ADVENT OF THE FLYING MACHINE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8141, 25 June 1906, Page 4

THE ADVENT OF THE FLYING MACHINE.

A brief but striking article, with this heading, appears in the " National Reyiew " from the pen of Major B. P. Baden-Powell, who calls preliminary attention to the fact that three notable steps have been already achieved in aerial navigation. The first is the man-hfting kite, whicli has succeeded in raising a man, without any gas bag, to an altitude of 3000 ft, whichjs practically above the range of rifle fire. The second is that 51, Lebaudy has been equally successful in constructing a practicablo airship, or propelled balloon ; and the third is that a gliding machine has been built by the brothers |Wmter in America, which can be driven along by a motor so as to maintain itself for upwards of half an hour.

Looking at what has been actually accomplished in this direction, Major Baden-Powell regards a veritable flying machine as one of the certain achievements of the near future. Motor cars, he reminds us, were hardly more than dreamt of 20 years ago ; were looked upon as curiosities 1° years ago; and have already become a feature o£ our daily life. But these promise to be superseded by flying machines, moving through the unimpeded and practically fnctionlcss air at a speed of 100 miles' an hour ; and the momentous consequences of an invention of this kind will be incalculable. " Such a machine," observes the major, " will truly introduce novelties in war, to say nothing of peace. When a Frenchman can dash across to our shores in ten minutes, and be over London within an hour, it will be high time to consider wherein our insulanty consists, and of what good to us is the silver streak and our indomit. able navy! Tariff reform is doomed when hundreds of rerial vessels are continually passing at all heights and in all directions. National frontiers

and private boundaries will alike be I obliterated." Bat there is a silver lining to every cloud ; and the Hying machine may ring the knell of war, for this will have become so appalling by the vast destruction of human lives and property which will result from the employment of chemical agencies dropped over great cities, military arsenals, dockyards, and fleets, from these " coursers of the air," that the outraged conscience of civilised mankind will insist upon its abolition.