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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0486.PDF
MAY 2, 1918. HHSHHHSH El Official. The German Offensive on the Western Front in France. — Fixing bombs to drop on massed Germans. a a a a 0 H H H 13 13 Wednesday morning, these protestors had the assurance todemand the dismissal of the Northern men who had " carried on." The contractors refused to comply with the demand,and, while the dispute was still in progress, the Chief Officer of Aerodrome Construction in Ireland arrived. On learningthe cause of the dispute he ordered the men to be paid off immediately; the workmen's huts being nailed up, and thework of construction abandoned, at all events for the present. Such prompt summary " justice " must have come as a nastyjar in return to the workers for their "patriotic "behaviour, and the quaintness of the whole proceedings is emphasisedby the fact that a very emphatic " injustice to Ireland " rumpus has recently been evident in the Irish Press againstthe Government for not using Ireland as a central manu- facturing spot for all things aviatic. THERE were 45,520 street accidents, of whicn 2,401 were fatal, in the United Kingdom last year. A daily contemporary points out that this compares with 625 people killed and 1,469 wounded in air raids in the same period. BRAZIL is the latest nation to enter the field for helping to bring into reality the making of the air black with aeroplanes to the ultimate undoing of the Hun, authority having been accorded for building a large factory for the construction of war-planes. WHILE the Crown Prince and an Admiral were standingon Zeebrugge Mole taking photographs of the damage which was not done by our Naval raid, British airmen, it is reported,appeared and began energetically bombarding this U-boat nest.! Rumour hath it that about the smartest hustle onrecord resulted amongst the royal snappers. SAMUEL ERNEST SKELTON, a farmer and a sergeant ofspecial constabulary at Scrooby, was fined £5 at Retford on Saturday for persisting in striking a match in the open aftera raid warning had been given. COWARDLY, anyway, if it was an unprotected one seeking sanctuary in its safety box ; but goodness only knows what it will come to, if matches get much shyer. LONG ACRE is one more firm on the road to the AviationCentre. This time it is Messrs. Whiteman and Moss, Ltd., who have put up their sign at No. 35. THOUGH of late years Mr. H. G. Wells has branched intosociology (whether the Karl Marx variety or the more in- triguing kind that culminates in disappointing asterisks !),he has always remained faithful to his first love, science, the manifestations of which he handles with the deft assuranceof knowledge. His description of an aeroplane crash which breaks into thecroquet and small talk of a country vicarage, •which occurs •. •; . '': BE •:'•."•• : ffl ', - E H HHHHHHHia in that unequal, but charming book " Marriage," is quotedfrom :— " Click went ball and mallet, and tnen, after a long interval,click. It seemed incredible that anything could possibly happen before tea. But this is no longer the world it was. " Suddenly this tranquil scene was slashed and rent bythe sound and vision of a monoplane tearing across the heavens. A purring and popping . . . and the monstercame sliding up the sky over the trees beside the church, already near enough to look big, a great stiff shape, bigbuff sails stayed with glittering wire, and with two odd little wheels beneath its body. It passed a little to the rightof the church tower, there wasn't fifty feet of clearance altogether, and they could see both driver and passengermaking hasty movements. ... It became immense and overshadowing, and everyone stood rigid as it swept acrossthe sun above the vicarage chimneys. Then it seemed to drop twenty feet or so abruptly, and both the men cried out asit drove straight for the line of poplars between the shrubbery and the meadow. Evidently the aviator was trying to turnsharply ; the huge thing banked, but not enough, and'came about and slipped away until its wing was slashing into thetree tops with a thrilling swish of leaves and the snapping of branches and stays. ... .- •• " The three ladies rushed sideways as the whole affairslouched down on them. It came on its edge, hesitated whether to turn over as a whole, then crumpled, and amidsta volley of smashing and snapping came to rest amidst ploughed-up turf, a clamorous stench of petrol, and a cloudof dust and blue smoke within twenty yards of them. The two men had jumped to clear the engine, had fallen headlong,and were now both covered by the fabric of the shattered wing." » - - A propos the death of the German crack airman. Baronvon Richthofen, who, as recorded in our last issue, was reported to have been flying a Fokker triplane when he methis death, some additional information is now to hand re- lating how this German " Ace " came to be flying a machinethat had been condemned by the German authorities. It is said that the Fokker firm produced a second type of machine,differing no doubt considerably from the type of which we commence a description elsewhere in this issue. This designis said to have been " turned down " by the German experts, but Baron von Richthofen, who had tried one of thesemachines, liked it, and in spite of the official veto on it took a fancy to the machine. The Fokker firm thereupon promptlymade the Baron a present of the machine, and he is said to have frequently used it. At the moment there is no indi-cation that it was any defect in the Fokker triplane which caused the airman to lose his life, although it is conceivablethat those who were responsible for condemning the machine will see in the termination of Richthofen's last flight ajustification of their judgment. 484
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