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Before passing to the year 1914 mention should be made of the feat performed by Nesteroff, a Russian, and Pegoud, a French pilot, who were the first to demonstrate the possibilities of flying upside-down and looping the loop. When the year 1914 opened a speed of 126 miles per hour had been attained and a height of 19,600 feet had been reached.
Hamel was asking M. Bleriot for a machine similar to that used by Pegoud, so that he might demonstrate to airmen the stability of the aeroplane in almost all conceivable positions. However, it was not the daring and skilful Hamel who had the honour of first following in Pegoud's footsteps, but another celebrated pilot, Mr. Hucks. Mr.
Hitherto any pilot in such circumstances would give himself up for lost. Pegoud has taught us what to do in such a case.... his flights have given us all a new confidence. "In a gale the machine might be upset at many different angles. Pegoud has shown us that it is easily possible to recover from such predicaments.
But this funny man stopped before he reached the ground, and took his last flight as gracefully as a Columbine with outspread skirts." Time after time Pegoud made a series of S-shaped dives, somersaults, and spiral descents, until, after an exhibition which thrilled quite 50,000 people, he planed gently to Earth.
Temple had to overcome that did not exist in the experiments of M. Pegoud or Mr. Hucks. To start with, his machine a 50-horse-power Bleriot monoplane was said by the makers to be unsuitable for the performance. Then he could get no assistance from the big aeroplane firms, who sought to dissuade him from his hazardous undertaking.
A descent in a parachute has also been made from an aeroplane by M. Pegoud, the daring French airman, of whom we speak later. A certain Frenchman, M. Bonnet, had constructed a parachute which was intended to be used by the pilot of an aeroplane if on any occasion he got into difficulties.
Pegoud is all the time rehearsing accidents and showing how easy it is for a pilot to recover equilibrium providing he remains perfectly calm and clear-headed. Any one of his extraordinary positions might be brought about by adverse elements. It is quite conceivable that a sudden gust of wind might turn the machine completely over.
On the occasion of decorating Pégoud with the Military Medal in March, 1915, the French Minister for War said: "Time and again he has pursued the enemy's aeroplanes successfully. On one day he brought down a monoplane and a biplane and compelled another biplane to land while he was all the time within range of fire."
But they managed to have a long and in the end a heated argument. The birdman said he had given his word to a beautiful lady, and that settled it. Besides, there was no danger in his wonderful machine. Had he not flown upside down and done all the things the great Pegoud himself had done? "As you Americans say let's see, what is your idiom?"
Before we describe the marvellous somersaults which Pegoud made, two or three thousand feet above the earth, it would be well to see what was the practical use of it all.
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