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Aviation History
1909
1909 - 0570.PDF
SEPTEMBER 18, 1909. BANQUET TO M. BLERIOT. ON Wednesday evening M. Bleriot was entertained at a banquet at the Cecil Hotel, under the auspices of the Aeroplane Club, in honour of his flight across the Channel, about 400 guests being present. Very fine models of aeroplanes—the Bleiiot and Farman machines being lent by the Motor Supply Co.—formed a feature in the decoration of the room. The Lord Mayor presided, accompanied by the Lady Mayoress. The toast of " Success to Aviation" was proposed by Mr. W. Burdett-Coutts, M.P., who said that he believed the majority of those present were possessed of a strong desire that England, the home of so many great inventions for the benefit of mankind, should not lag behind in this the last and most wonderful science. The present state of the science of aviation seemed to illustrate the old proverb " that the largest room in the world was the room for improvement." Nevertheless, the aviator's lot was a happy one. lie might injure, or possibly lose, a limb, his features might occasionally be rearranged, yet was not this very danger the real fascination, and where danger was who would say that the English inventor would not find his true vocation. Sir Hiram Maxim, in responding, said it was very gratifying to him to find that after having spent so much time, money and thought on flying machines during the past sixteen years that flying was not a subject of ridicule at the present time, and he was glad to see the good fellowship which existed among the men who fly. The greater number of failures in flying machines was due entirely to the motors, which in his opinion were not made with a sufficient degree of accuracy. The aeroplane engine to be a success must be as efficient as a marine engine, a locomotive, or a Maxim gun. At the present moment he was experimenting with an engine with steel cylinders, which would weigh about li to i£ lbs. per horse-power, or in other words, an engine which would develop 2-horse-power for the weight of one barndoor fowl. The Lord Mayor, in proposing the toast of " M. Bleriot," said we were living in a wonderful age, and the year 1909 would rank as one of the most wonderful in it. " Will it not be recorded in that year that the conquest of the air was successfully accomplished ? " He said a stupendous change in locomotion was coming over the world ; in fact, a new world would shortly be opened to us. In the -\OUTH not very distant future we should be able to hail an aeroplane, and say, " I should like to be taken to the Champs Elysees, Paris," and we should arrive there in the course of a few hours. It was most befitting that the honour of the cross-Channel flight should have gone to a Frenchman, because there is no nation in the world which has striven more to make aviation successful than the French nation. Madame Bleriot was here to-night, he said, a proud woman, to share in the triumphs of her husband. The Lord Mayor then presented M. Bleriot with the gold cup offered by Capt. Windham to the first person to fly the Channel. M. Bleriot, in responding, said he would like to utter one thought, and that was that the overwhelming appreciation bestowed upon him should be extended to his comrades in France and elsewhere, who were doing so much to solve the problem of flight. There was no doubt that the science of aviation was developing at gigantic speed, and it would continue to do so by means of constant emulation, which would be the result of well-organised competitions and encourage- ments offered by the numerous institutions and individuals concerned in aviation. Within the near future such progress would be made as would constitute aviation as a practical science and not merely a sport as it was at present regarded. As far as he was concerned, within a few months he hoped to have created a novel flyer which would enable man, like the seagull, to rest on the surface of the sea, and then rise and commence flying again without fear of collapsing. Capt. Windham, proposing the toast of "The Visitors," announced that Mr. H. Keen, one of the members of the Aeroplane Club, offered a prize of ,£500 in cash or a gold cup for a flight over London in order to give the British public an idea of what an aeroplane was capable of. The toast was responded to by Admiral Sir Wm. Kennedy, R.N., and Lieut. Shackleton, R.N, M.V.O. The health of the chairman was proposed by Sir Francis Stanhope Hanson, and the Lord Mayor, in responding, said he had been requested to announce that Mr. C. Friswell offered a prize of ,£500 for the first heavier-than-air machine which would remain stationary in the air for a period of one minute. In conclusion, he thought it would be possible in the near future to arrange for the use of Wormwood Scrubs for the purpose of experiments in aviation. ^uA? AuND FARMAN'S RECENT FLIGHTS AT RHEIMS GRAPHICALLY DEPICTED-What their distanceand height achievements areequal to if carried out on familiar ground in England. On the left the single flight of Farman is seen, reaching almost to Weymouth, whilst the three successive flights of Latham placed end on would have brought thisremarkable flyer up to Lancaster and Morecambe Bay, beyond Blackpool, where the proposed Aviation Week is to take place next month. On the right the height event is seen, with St. Paul's Cathedral (to scale) as a guide for comparison.
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