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After dropping the three bombs and his carte de visite, the German aeroplane vanished towards the east. It seems strange that the flotillas of air-craft at Buc were thus caught napping and allowed the German air-lieutenant to escape. I called in the afternoon upon Madame Waddington and her sister, Miss King.
It is interesting to contrast the power obtained from this engine with that of recent Zeppelin air-ships, each of which is fitted with three or four engines, capable of producing over 800 horse-power. The first instance on record of an air-ship being steered back to its starting-point was that of La France. This air-craft was the invention of two French army captains, Reynard and Krebs.
A large piece of the lower left wing, composing the whole of the front spar between the fuselage and the first upright, was picked up at least 100 yards from the spot where the air-craft struck the ground. The fall of the air-craft was broken considerably by the trees, to such an extent that the portion of the fuselage surrounding the seats was practically undamaged.
That is one for the bombers." Thus time passed. Archie was busy dodging his dangerous namesakes, while Carleton focused his entire attention on gathering material for his report. Carleton did not watch the movements below, however, with more care than Archie watched the sky on all sides for signs of enemy air-craft.
Our anti air-craft guns opened on him, and we could see the shells bursting with little cottony puffs all around. Some of the shrapnel struck near us. They missed him, and up he went again. Presently all five came circling lower and lower, jockeying for position and spitting away with their guns. As they all got to the lower levels, the anti air-craft guns stopped firing, fearing to get our men.
Two important conditions of the contest were that the flight was to be made in an all-British aeroplane, fitted with a British engine. Hitherto our aeroplane constructors and engine companies were behind their rivals across the Channel in the building of air-craft and aerial engines, and this country freely acknowledged the merits and enterprise of French aviators.
"I think I can now tell you how we produce enough food for the three and a half trillion of us, despite our lack of farms and orchards," said Myrin rising. Returning to the air-craft, the four were taken a short distance in a new direction, and again descended, this time transferring to an elevator which dropped far below the surface. They came to a stop about ten floors down.
"We are protected, my dear, by the open spaces of Regent's Park. They wouldn't like to waste their bombs on poor me!" However her maid didn't altogether like the off chance of the Germans or our air-craft guns making a mistake and trespassing on the residential parts of London, so she persuaded her mistress to spend part of the winter of 1915-16 at Bournemouth.
The object was a small air-craft, of a sort entirely strange to the engineer; yet he knew that it was disabled. One of its queer wings was broken and fluttering, as the little machine dropped, tumbling and twisting erratically, in an inexplicably slow fashion toward the unseen ground. Smith glimpsed a single figure, presumably strapped in the seat.
To prevent accidents of this kind the rudder bars could be fitted with pedals to which the pilot's feet could be secured by toe-clips, as on bicycle pedals. Indeed, some makers of air-craft have already provided pedals with toe-clips for the rudder bar. Probably some safety device such as this will soon be made compulsory on all machines.
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