LAND FLIGHT AND AIR FLIGHT 



THE wind made flight and the wind will always 

 mar it. Any one often watching sea or land birds 

 fighting against strong squalls must see how great 

 is the problem of artificial flight. The airman 

 starts in a calm. Now try to imagine the day when 

 his vessel shall set sail in the storm ! Where one 

 falls into the water or on to the land to-day a 

 hundred might well fall then. It is not so much 

 the hard-blowing, straight and even wind that must 

 always be a deadly peril to the artificial flier. It 

 is the vicious squall, the uncertain gust, shifting 

 its quarter and changing its pace. I have seen a 

 hawk among the trees half -helpless before such fickle 

 winds ; and, in downs and high unsheltered hills, 

 finches, buntings, and other small birds will hardly 

 venture from the hedge till the storm abates. Yet 

 here is flight in which is no danger of an actual 

 tumble to earth, and no danger of the crashing up of 

 machinery and material, among which the flier may 

 perish. 



It took Nature an aeon to fashion out her flying 

 thing complete ; and yet she has not fashioned a 

 thing that can ride with absolute comfort and ease 

 in great aerial storms. I must say that, after 



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