On January 7th Latham, flying at Mourmelon, first made the vertical
kilometre and dedicated the record to Delagrange, this being the day of
his friend's funeral. The record was thoroughly authenticated by a large
registering barometer which Latham carried, certified by the officials
of the French Aero Club. Three days later Paulhan, who was at Los
Angeles, California, raised the height record to 4,146 feet.
On January 25th the Brussels Exhibition opened, when the Antoinette
monoplane, the Gaffaux and Hanriot monoplanes, together with the
d'Hespel aeroplane, were shown; there were also the dirigible Belgica
and a number of interesting aero engines, including a German airship
engine and a four-cylinder 50 horse-power Miesse, this last air-cooled
by means of 22 fans driving a current of air through air jackets
surrounding fluted cylinders.
On April 2nd Hubert Le Blon, flying a Bleriot with an Anzani engine,
was killed while flying over the water. His machine was flying quite
steadily, when it suddenly heeled over and came down sideways into the
sea; the motor continued running for some seconds and the whole machine
was drawn under water. When boats reached the spot, Le Blon was found
lying back in the driving seat floating just below the surface. He had
done good flying at Doncaster, and at Heliopolis had broken the world's
speed records for 5 and 10 kilometres. The accident was attributed to
fracture of one of the wing stay wires when running into a gust of wind.
The next notable event was Paulhan's London-Manchester flight, of which
full details have already been given. In May Captain Bertram Dickson,
flying at the Tours meeting, beat all the Continental fliers whom he
encountered, including Chavez, the Peruvian, who later made the
first crossing of the Alps. Dickson was the first British winner of
international aviation prizes.
C. S. Rolls, of whom full details have already been given, was killed at
Bournemouth on July 12th, being the first British aviator of note to be
killed in an aeroplane accident. His return trip across the Channel had
taken place on June 2nd. Chavez, who was rapidly leaping into fame, as
a pilot, raised the British height record to 5,750 feet while flying at
Blackpool on August 3rd. On the 11th of that month, Armstrong Drexel,
flying a Bleriot, made a world's height record of 6,745 feet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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