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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 0017.PDF
ARMCHAIR REFLECTIONS. By THE Resolutions. THIS is the 29th day of December. I know that because I have seen it printed on my morning paper. It also tells me that it is Monday, otherwise I should not know but that it might be any other day, last week having been made up principally of Sundays, with a balance of days that might have been anything. The fact is I have been lost. It has been Christmas. I spent the whole of the early part of last week telling people what I wished them, and the whole of the early portion of to-day has been taken up in enquiries as to whether my wishes had been fulfilled ; but my morning paper reminds me that this is all behind me now, and that this is Monday, December 29th, and a s lid working day, the first instalment of six solid working days in this week, and I have promised myself not to say Christmas any more, and not to think of holidays till Easter. Of course there is New Year's Day and Eve to come, but I am not sure what or when they are. Hogmanay is nothing of mine, and I don't care a brass farthing who will be the first to enter my simple abode on the morning of the first, or whether he carries a bottle or not. The maiden I first see on New Year's morning is not at all likely to become my bride before the year is out, in spite of all theory to the contrary. I am strengthened in this refutation from a knowledge of the fact that she is "going out" with the baker's man. I shall not stand shivering in St. Paul's Churchyard waiting for the clock to strike twelve before I can take a "nip." My " fut " is on my native heath all the time; and, anyway, I don't come from that country where the men come from whom I vowed long ago never to call by name again—in short, I am a cockney, and New Year's Eve or Day is but one of 365. The first of January will come for me, I know, because it is the day on which the income tax becomes due, and I have faith in the assessors that they will see to it that it shall arrive on time, even if they have to invent a new schedule. Yet, being but one of 365, it is nevertheless a day of great importance to me; it is the day on which I make all those resolutions with regaid to the giving up of all that is worth living for, that has kept me in the same groove for—well, no matter how many years. If I had all the pipes I have given away when I gave up smoking I should be saved a deal of expense now in buying new ones ; and I always have more cigarettes on January 1st than on any other day in the year. There is the box I left at home in the morning when I gave up the vile habit, and the box I bought on the way to the station when I side slipped again. After all, the making of resolutions must have a strengthening effect on the character, even if they are immediately broken ; there is something in recognising one's shortcomings. Long-distance Aeroplaning. It seems but yesterday that the brothers Wright made history by keeping a machine in the air for 59 seconds. Things have progressed considerably since then; but I think the long-distance flights put up by pilots in this and other countries during 1913 outstrip anything in the way of progress in previous years, even taking into accbunt improvements in machines themselves. It would be invidious to single out any particular flight, they have all been so magnificent, but a list of some that stand out pre-eminent, and deserve to be placed on record en bloc, may not be amiss. The recent flight of Vedrines from Nancy, on the DREAMER. Franco-German frontier, to Cairo, some 3,500 miles, is in itself sufficient recompense for all the trouble and care that has been bestowed on the improvement of both pilot and machine. In addition we have Brindejonc des Moulinais, who, on June 10th, flew from Paris to Warsaw in one day, and thence continuing, till July 2nd, to St. Petersburg, Stockholm, The Hague, and back to Paris, covering in all 3,000 miles; M. Garros, on September 23rd, flew 500 miles across the Mediterranean, from St. Raphael on the Riviera to Bizerta, near Tunis, in Africa; M. Gilbert, on August 3rd, flew 870 miles with only one stop, the journey being from Paris to Caceres in Spain. Again, there is the fine flight of Helen on a Nieuport monoplane, who covered 13,060 miles in thirty-nine consecutive da>s, and the flight of Seguin from Paris to Bordeaux and back, non-stop, when he was in the air for thirteen hours. In England, Capt. C. A. H. Longcroft, on November 22nd, made a non-stop flight with a passenger from Montrose to Portsmouth, and back to Farnborough, a distance of 635 miles, at a speed of 90 miles an hour, and Hawker, in his attempt to win the Daily Mail prize of .£5,000 for the circuit of Britain, flew from Southampton to Dublin via Ramsgate, Yarmouth, Scarborough, Cromarty, Oban and the Irish Channel, covering in all a distance of 1,000 miles. These are but a few of the more prominent flights accomplished this year, but they show the enormous si rides that aviation has made. It is beyond any man to say what will happen during 1914. In all probab'lity next year will see two more expeditions to the South Polar regions, that of Sir Ernest Shackleton and Dr. Mawson. M.WISKiBWV. VEDDINES 2500 MLS GILBERT SOO MLS BB1NDEJ0NC DES MOULINAJS 3000 MLS HWWHED 1060 MLS DAUCOUBT IROO MLS CAfiT IONGCPOFT 640 MLS SEGUIN 600 MLS: GAKROS 5COMLS Some long distance (lights of the year. 17
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