Salt Lake Herald-Republican | 1918-09-01 | Page 28 | Air Service Has Become Less Perilous

AIR SERVICE HAS BECOME LESS PERILOUS f strOn Strong Body of Steel or 0 orI I H ift Wood Saves Flyers' Flyers X Lives Lives' c An Vj-An An American in En England land Aug 31 Flying 31 Flying in the thc air is 18 bc becoming becom omI om- om I trig ing g rapidly more safe te veteran instrUctors instructors tors tor at nt the British-American British aerodromes nero aero In England tell their pupils The proportion of at casualties during training In the tho air force ac arn arti now nohl no hl higher the they sa say than n in any other branch of ot combatant service r During three e years years' flying experience experience experience ence I have havo seen een upwards of ot rift fifty cr crashes but hut I J have ha not yet ct seen een any man receive more then than dop Injuries in injuries tn- tn juries as the result of ot these accidents declared J L. L Walmsley tit of if the Royal noal air fore foro In a alk with American Amen Ameri c can n airmen recently Probably my experience c has leon boon unusually unusually te but hut statistic statistic- that the tho proportion on of or s to crashes Is extract small I Act nn n Wittier Some of the first airplane accidents resulted from the collapse of oC machines machne In midair Because the tho pilot in those days was merel merely strapped to a board 9 or strut without nfl any covering whatever whatever what what- ever er the results were serc mostly fatal The Introduction of oC the tho fuselage e or body odY made strongly of or steel and wood In which the pilots pilot's and passengers passenger's seats wore were placed made it possible foran foran for foran an airplane to fall faB from great heights without the occupants being killed Because Because Be Be- cause of ot the tho central position of or the fuselage It Is always the tho last part to feel eel the thc effects of or a crash the main force of oC which Is broken by the tho undercarriage under under- carriage and planes which act as but bur lens fers Two das da's after I Joined the Toyal air force I saw T. T machine como conic down downin in hi a giddy spinning l a an and land and squarely on the roof root of on ono one of or the hangars The pilot climbed out and lighting a cigarette calmly asked if Jt the tho other machine was r ready ally During the next few weeks I jaw aw no fewer than five fhe crashes crash s and in Mot lOt ot otone one case case was either cither pilot or Ul observer hurt Inn Slight Wounds Since then therm In nearly three years of oC flying I must have observed perhaps fifty accidents I hav havi seen cen airplanes Into stone walls houses crash hangars ht lamp Jamp posts U. nIU iuri iu bridges Personally I have t fallen Inton Into a n barn on a tennis court in a flooded field and Into a tr il forest crest the last ast at a speed of or el eighty ht miles an hour And Amid AndIn Andin in all these ad adventures I r have not yet ct seen a man receive anything worse than a skinned nose as the tho result of oC a crash and the tho on only I wound I ever got myself was made by a thorn thorn from a a. prickly pear bushAn bushAn bush An airman can usually tell when a crash is inevitable and like lightning make up his mind how he can use his undercarriage and planes to best hest advantage e. e first of or all to save the life Ute of or his observer er and his own and It Impossible possible to save the engine the most valuable part of ot the tho machine He Hc may have to pancake Into R R. abush bush or ho he ma may have to fly ny deliberately between two trees and strip his wings winS's but so lon long as aa he e keeps his head the chances of making a 3 successful landing are greatly in his favor