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Aviation History
1917
1917 - 0323.PDF
APRIL 5, 1917 BRAINS in 'the Navy and Army have received another qualified lease of life under the Defence of the Realm Act. So long as national interests are fully safeguarded, inventors are, says Dr. Addison, to be allowed to do something with their inventions if they like. What a lucky dog the Inventor is, to be sure. FLIGHT-COMDR. LORD DOUNE, son of the Earl of Moray, has received " honourable mention " in the competition for " Safety First " couplets which was arranged by the London General Omnibus Co. and its co-workers. The following is Lord Doune's version of a ruthless rhyme, & la chestnut:— O ! mummy, dear, what is that stuff that's so like straw- berry jam It is, my dear, your careless pa, run over by a tram. JUST like those careless trams. Presently the only " safety first" place will be in the air. AFTER many moons the Deperdussin sensation has nowbeen brought into the limelight of the French Courts. M. Armand Deperdussin entirely exonerates his wife, who ischarged with him in a stupendous list of alleged irregularities, and has made a clean breast of his fall from the straightpaths of commercial virtue, pleading as his excuse his com- plete obsession to the fascination of aviation, and moreparticularly the halo of heroism which it, at the time of his exploits as a pioneer of flying, brought with it. He lived,he said, in a mirage, and did not know what he was doing. He was the only guilty person. His wife, he asserted, wascompletely innocent, and if to pay for his faults he had to forfeit the remainder of his life he was ready to do so. Hiswife had been his first and greatest victim. AT this point M. Deperdussin, so the reporter alleges, " pancaked," as it were—otherwise, broke down. As there were round about 1,200 questions which the jurywere called upon to answer in detail, we have resigned ourselves to not giving the evidence of the trial verbatim and shall remain content to reproduce or otherwise the Court's summing up. One thing is certain, however erratic the methods, it is partly due to M. Deperdussin's schemes that the French have had in being such a fine aerodrome and works whereon and wherein to build Hun strafing machines, albeit of other designs than the original Deps. SINCE the above paragraphs were in type the trial has been quickly finished, and in every way endorses the opinion expressed above with Madame D. set free and Monsieur penalised to the extent of five years imprisonment (the serving of the sentence to be suspended), there is little to quarrel with at this long interval after the " crimes." In many ways France, notwithstanding M. Dcp's shortcomings, owes to him, as we suggest, a debt of gratitude. THEKE are many touches of pathos in the highly interestingarticles of Mr. J. P. Whitaker, a young Yorkshireman, who, after two and a half years' detention with the Germans inRoubaix, France, has just managed to make his escape, which have been appearing in The Times. A personal note issounded in last Friday's instalment, where Mr. Whitaker's refers to an incident associated with a couple of our lostflying officers. " Last year," the narrator writes, " a British aeroplane was brought down by the famous Capt. Boelckeat Lannoy, just outside Roubaix, and the pilot and observer lost their lives. They were buried with military honours inRoubaix Cemetery, in the presence of many of the towns- people. I was unable to be there, but I have seen the littlewooden cross which marks the grave ol Lieut. Gray and Lieut. Wilkinson, and I have seen the flowers with whichFrench and British men and women covered the grave on All Souls' Day." THE message thus conveyed will carry a ray of light to thosewho so far may have fretted as to how their lost ones had finally found their rest. A large twin-engine seaplane, built for the U.S. Navy, at the U.S Naval Yard, Washington, to the designs jof Constructor Holden C. Richardson. It has a span of 57 ft., a chord and gap of 9 ft. 6 ins. and 10 ft. respectively, and a total supporting surface of 1,000 sq. ft. The engines are Curtiss VX type, 160 h.p.,and the speed range is 45-80 m.p.h., the full flying load being 6,000 lbs. 323
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