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Show NOTED ENGLISH j FLYER TELLS OF I : TRANS-SEA FEAT Sir Arthur Whitten Brown, British Aviator, Says Air Travel Is Safer Than Any. Aerial Navigation's Future) Forecast at Banquet Given by Bonneville Members. "The air offers greater safety titan any other medium of transportation.'' LJeuten- j ant Sir Arthur Whitten Brown, navigator of Ihe first aeroplane to make a non-stop hop across the Atlantic ocean, said in speaking at the Bonneville club dinner last night. j Sir Arthur made this statement folio w-j w-j ing a detailed story of the flight, its prep-j prep-j arations, actual start, its course and its completion. The story of this exploit, which will live as long as air travel lives in history, led the officer up to a discussion discus-sion of the present and future of aerial navigation. The heavier than air machine, he said, has snob limitations of distance caused by the necessity for fuel space and weight that it is best suited for freight and passenger pas-senger transportation within a radiU3 of from 00 to 1000 miles. The lighter than air machine as typified by the dirigible, j he ERid, offers tlie solution of the future j to transatlantic and other long distance ( transportation. He expressed regret at what he termed I the slowness with which America lias i taken up aerial navigation since the war. i The world owes the aeroplane to the j Wright .brothers, but the United States, j he declared, has fallen behind In the de-I de-I velopment o:" this coming means of trans-! trans-! portatlon, Safety to Increase. The advantages of aerial travel over that of railroads or steam ships, he pointed point-ed out to be speed, safety and comfort. Further improvements and the enactment of suitable legislation will do much towards making this sort of travel much safer than at present, he said. There Is no vibration In air travel, he said, and no dust, and furthermore, there Is absolutely smooth riding. Sir Arthur expressed the hope that the speed of air travel, bringing the United States and England within a sure forty-eight forty-eight hours' journey, will unite the English En-glish speaking people of the world and do I much towards making for eventual uni- ! versa peace. ; -His reference." to the experiences of the ! trip Itself were told in an impersonal sort , of way, with a matter-of-factness that ! brought many smiles for this navigator whose achievement won for him a knighthood knight-hood from King George. He spoke of the heavy weather which they had to overcome in taking off from their field near St. John's and of the difficulty dif-ficulty they had with clouds during the entire journey. Death Menaces Flyers. At one time they Sir John Alcock, the pilot, and Sir Arthur became lost in the ( fog at an altitude of 5000 feet and losing their sense of balance went into a spin which was ended less than fifty feet from the surface of the ocean. "Tl)at rather upset us," he said. "When we came out of the cloud the ocean seemed to be standing up alongside us." Following this narrow escape they climbed upwards again for tfOOO feet through clouds, rain, snow and finally sleet which froze on the machine. Tho landing they made near Clifton village. vil-lage. Ireland, probably would have been fatal, he said, had the machine been constructed con-structed of wood rather than steel. The field which looked like a meadow from above proved to be a bog, and tho plane stood up on Its nose when they reached the ground. Thirst, rather than hunger. Sir Arthur said, assailed them on their trip. They carried with them chocolate, sandwiches and hot coffee. This latter was their i mainstay. The report that they had used j stimulants. Sir Arthur said, was due to the remark of a villager who saw them laud who told a reporter that they had j had "'ail" coming across. While the flight won a prize of 130,000, tt coat the IckerVs company, whose plane i Sir Arthur navigated, more than 1130,000. ' The "Vickers-Vimy bomber which thev fiew has been presented to the British ' government and v. ill be preserved in a ! museum, according to tho flier. Would Aid Railroads, In speaking of the future possibilities 1 for t'.-.e dirigible Sir Arthur said that In- land cities may become starting places for long distance iin-s, that some time! the seaports will handle tho heavier classes of travel by ship, while from an. inland point or points wfli go the lighter and ! more valuable freight by dirigible. He laid particular emphasis upon what he ' termed the "grtat field for the develop- ment of dirigibles in America, with its! COCO miles across country." Air shipss he said, may even become -feeders for points not yet furnished with j railroads. The aeroplane and the diri- glb.'e will not be competitors of the mil- ! roads, he declared, but rather adjuncts to 1 them. Aviation circles are not looking for the! time of the air flivver. Sir Arthur said, 1 for that means cheapness of materials an- 1 construction and consequent accidents, lie -bespoke a high plane of aerial constr-ic- ; tlon. saying that there is no room for: get-rich-quick sc::err.c-s in the aerial com-' ntercta world. c. ft. PearsaO, president of the Bonne- j (Continued cn ppje 10. Column i.) AVIATOR TELLS OF TRANS-SEA FLIGHT (Continued From Page One.) villa club, presided at the banquet, which was attended by more than 200 members. Harold P. Fabian was the tonstmaster. ; In introducing Sir Arthur, he said that the t dream, of Peary, the explorer, that air machines would become the means of transatlantic travel, had been realized by the trip of Sir Arthur and Sir John Al-cock. |