THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 1912. CONQUERING THE AIR.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10656, 11 June 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 1912. CONQUERING THE AIR.

The attitude of the aviator towards 'that .glim enemy-'Death,- whose face •is ever before him, forms one"of the •most interesting problems of the psycliology off flying, 'llhe question perpetually at the back of his eoroseiousiiess seems to ibe, "It will come, it is coming. But when? And how?" 'And the airmia'n's answer is Wis fatalfern. Edward Lyell Fox, in the 1 April •"Century," recounts many swift and idireadful deaths in 'the air, and telfe l us how wlitlh what words and hearing 'the men went tb heir doom. This i.nlosflcuJa.ble, ever-lurking "it" in the 'sky is recognised by all. It may come 'in hundreds of ways, Relaxation of nervous tension, momentary loss of balance, over-confidence, each may •any momelit i bring the end. Then 'Uliere are .co-iHiitliefis mishaps whir*!) may beftoll 1 the aviator air-sickness, paralysis from the cold, heart failure, mental collapse. A sneeze, oven, may loause a perilous loss of balance, as Altwood discovered. Most calmly fantastic, perhaps, of 'all l fliers was Hubert .Latham, who cynioa;l!ly persisted in flying with the .nrarderouis ."Antoinette," which always smashed either itself or its rider. "I'll fly your imjaohine.," he told the ibuilder of it. "If I break it, you repair it. I'll 'keep on''breaking it, until it flies or gets me." And lie flew it obsrtinate-

ly, 'indifferently, inrtil aftor every part of 'the rand .many of his own •bones had beeni broken, it obeyed him like a broken-in hor.se. 0 till or aviators' deaths do irht disturb the steely indifference oif these Pn'ta-listis of tlio Air. llnlph Johnstone flow and fell at Denver. Six weeks later Moiaant was killed -at New' Orleans. Hoxspy feaw the death of the one and heard «f that ■ofHho other. Yet ho flow, ax'jai.;n£it his friends' entreaties, aitterj .tn,!4 hi a inipprtiura'hilo ".If it's after nuo uit'll get itk\" and he, to'o, fell and j died. Accident's do not appall the airmen. The same accident won'/t Ihappen twiiee," ; he says. "My.next twill 'he different." Sometimes a curious premonition haunts the aviator. 'Ely, ji«»t beifone one of his flights, on being neked by a pressman whether the. crowd 'bothered him, replied, "I •see the crowd below me, looking upward, and I know every mam. who twitches ni,o start downward half expects in see m<e killed. I .suppose they all figure how they'll pick me up some day." A few miinutes later he was dashed to the ground, bleeding and u'n conscious. A month hiter he fl|ew again, and, racing to earth on the "Ely Glide," was killed. ■Without (this Mind i,us,en.silbi?ity to danger on the paitfc of the flying men the ,air' would remato nnconouered.