AERIAL NAVIGATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 151, 13 November 1912, Page 7

AERIAL NAVIGATION.

•J MB. CODY'S M-PLAXK. > . A piquant comment upon War Office methods is contained in a story related ;byfMfco.W-. •P. Cody, whose success in winning the two largest prizes competed fqr at the^army.aviation trials delighted his friends: artel caused general astonishment, among 1 his French "and British rivals. '! Though an indomitable worker, with a 'positive genius for making the most, of slender resources, Mr. Cody has always been a rather alarming person from the official point of view. He has never fully recovered 1 from the effects of ; .his eatly Experience as a travelling American showman and actor in melodrama, and, moreover, he is unconventional'by temperament. When, after spending some years in making experiments with man-lifting kites, and helping to build the first British airship, he proceeded with a construction of a bi-plane for the army, someone suggested that ' he Was wasting public money. That gave the officials of the War Olfice an excuse for dissociating themselves from his new enterprise. They made him a present of the unfinished machine, and told him to take it away. He promptly did take it away, and (as he now states-) continued his work upon it privately in a little shed at Farnborough, barely large enough to turn round in, and meagrely provided with tools and material. The completion of Mr. Cody's task proved a hard struggle; he was poor, and had to get together £BOO for the purchase of a 120-horse-power engine for the bi-plane. Most of his rivals in the recent War Office competitions represented wellknown firms, and some had two or three spare machines at their disposal. Had any mishap befallen Mr. Cody's one machine he would have been totally defeated. But he rode triumphantly through every test, and demonstrated that in several respects—in range of speed, carrying capacity and rapid climbing power —his baplane was the best in the field. And this was the same machine, only slightly improved in design, that the War Office experts had told him to "take away"—out of their sight. They were glad to take it back and pay him £IOOO for it. He hesitated to part with it for that sum, but as it had won him £SOOO I in prize money he let it go.