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Show fi v w i lb . I ' . ' AEROPLANES AS SAEE I AS AUTOMOBILES '"-' 11 i 1 The BtrikiDg assertion above is IH - . . ; made in an article appearing in fl ' v I '.a the January Popular Mechanics M Magazine, which tabulates the im . aviation fatalities of 1912 and J '"". , comments on the ' death rate ii . . . r among airmen for several years j 1 past. The article states: y ' ".The number of airmen dur- 'jj ,( ing each year, including all oth- ,'i : ' ers as well as the liconsed pilots, .'.' "' ' ' works out pretty closely to five ' I . in 1908; 50 in 1909; 500 in 1910; ! I v' ' e "N l-500 in l9n- and 5'800 in 1912' I 1h.: "Now, making a few simple jlf. . .' deductions from foregoing data. I I ; ;' ' it is easy to calculate that in I -.,.,' '' 1908 there was a fatality for each 1 -' . thousand miles of flight; in 1909, 5 1 one for each 7, 000 miles; in 1910, 1 I ." one for each 20,000 miles; in 1 ' ' ' 1911, one for each 30,000 miles, I and, in 1912. one for each 107,000 . . miles. It is equally evident that r. - in 1908, one in five of the airmen - . '' were killed; in 1909, one in 12; ; - ;- in 1910, one in 17; in 1911. one ?" in 20, and in 1912, one in 51. . "On the face of it, then, avia-"l avia-"l . tion has consistently and rapidly ' -, v improved in safety from year to ., ' ., f - year, until now it is at least ten ; I V ' times as unlikely to kill a person II j engaged in it as it was in 1908. ' Jj '. ' ; And in spite of this reduced - 1 '. danger, per individual, there is a ':"'' Z - still greater reduction of danger J ! . per unit of mileage, 107, 000 miles " -- . of flight being now accomplished : t with the same toll of human life . v ' i that only four years ago was paid r1 ,u ; "for each thousand miles. ' -1 ' .. "Yet ninety-nine persons out X; ,' ; ' " "". of every hundred are impressed tjfe-? "" ' with the idea that aviation, J ;. ' ; '' "which h'id killed less than half a r v lHllllfllii" 'i.'fin iwiiii n tiiMii "" -' -" dozen individuals four years ago, has grown into something terribly terri-bly dangerous, when, as a matter mat-ter of fact, aviation commenced as something very hazardous and has developed already into something some-thing fully 99 per cent less risky, until now a flight in an aeroplane is far safer than a ride in a racing rac-ing automobile, and is only about as hazardous as paiticipation in a football game, which, for numbers num-bers and time of ipdividurls engaged, en-gaged, rolls up substantially an equal fatality list." |