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Aviation History
1911
1911 - 0109.PDF
FEBRUARY II, 1911. [/PCHTI After Dinner Talk: the Men and their'Machines. IN more than one way the Aero Club Dinner on Tuesday week was remarkable. It was extremely well attended in the first place, and it was pleasant to see so many ladies honouring the occasion with their presence. This in itself was somewhat a marked departure from orthodox club proceedings, and it is not without some significance how aeronautics has practically from the first become a common field of interest to both sexes. But perhaps the most remark able feature of all was one that cannot be welcomed, but must rather be deprecated, even though we are fully con vinced it was unintentional. As is usual at such English banquets, the ceremony was not considered complete without rather lengthy speech-making, and unfortunately some of the speakers managed to strike almost a jarring note of implied dissatisfaction with the efforts and achievements of British manufacturers, combined with a tendency to disregard the part played by the builders and designers— foreign as well as British—of the machines when allotting credit to the successful pilot aviators. Considering that a not insignificant part of this particular banquet happened to be the distribution of prizes to the cash value of ^5,500, to say nothing of any honour associated with the mere winning of the prizes, the omission—probably due to the short time available for individual speakers in view of the number of toasts, responses, and prize - giving to be got through during the evening — either to emphasise the splendid work of British firms during the year or to keep well to the front the great importance of design and of manufacture, as well as of subsequent skilful handling, was, to say the least, regrettable. True, Mr. S. F. Cody spoke up well for the " Green " engine with which he won the British Michelin Cup, and also for the British E.N.V. ; but a word might also have been expected for that most promising N.E.C. two-stroke motor, that at one time stood first on the list of competing performances. So with the aeroplanes on which the winning flights were made, there was hardly a word except about the Cody biplane. The Howard Wright biplane certainly deserved some credit, not to mention the Short machines that figured largely, and Mr. Alec Ogilvie's British-built Wright biplane, that enabled him to strive so strenuously down at Rye, and the Bristol biplanes that again and again have proved their worth. Scottish Aeroplane Wins a Prize. ON the 30th ult., Mr. A. S. Barnwell accomplished a very satisfactory flight on his latest aeroplane, although un fortunately it ended by the machine coming to grief. Rising from a field near Causeway Head he attained a height of 100 ft., and turning towards the Bridge of Allan steered for the gasworks there and passed over them at a height of 200 ft. After descending to within 20 ft. of the ground he then rose again, but, in trying to avoid some telegraph "Miss Gertrude Robins," the authoress of "Pot Luck," who is playing in "Don't Ask Aoy Questions" at the Palace Theatre, and who in private life is Mrs. Chas. E. Dawson of Naphill, is a great supporter of the art of flying. Miss Robins practises gliding on the machines designed by her husband, and is seen above in the pilot's seat of the biplane. wires, pushed the control lever over too far and brought the machine down with a crash. The aviator escaped practi cally unhurt, although, of course, the machine was con siderably damaged. By this flight the aviator secured a prize of £50 offered by the Scottish Aeronautical Society. The Hon. Mrs. Assheton-Harbord, who secured the Royal Aero Club Challenge Cup for ballooning in 1910, about to take her first trip at the London Aerodrome on an aeroplane—the " Valkyrie." Ill C 2
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