A GREAT FLIGHT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3220, 17 May 1911, Page 2

A GREAT FLIGHT.

DECENT Cl\ A MOUNTAIN TOP. The £4OOO prize, offered some years ago by M. Miohelin to the first aviator who should fly from Paris to the Puy o'e Dome with one passenger, has been won by AI. Renaux, the celebrated airman. 'Jhe conditions laid down were that the journey must be completed in, six hours, counting from the time that the aviator passed over the aeronautic park at St. Cloud. On reaching Cler-mont-Ferrand, where the Miehelin works are situated, the aeroplane was to double the cathedral, and then, making for Puy do Dome, alight on the narrow! platform at the summit, nearly 4500 feet above sea level —that is to Aay, on a mcurtain about as high as Ben Nevis. The distance as the crow flies is about 220 miles. At 2.15 on. the afternoon of March 9th, the hundred persons awaiting Renaux’s arrival on the summit descried a. black speck on the right of Clermont, making straight towards the mountain. Five minutes later the whirr of the motor was heard, and a few seconds. afterwards Renaux began to descend, stopping tlie motor from, time to time. With a half-circular sweep he came to earth between two .sheets of red canvas placed about 80 feet apart. Skilful, as the descent was, the left wing of the aeroplane 'nevertheless l struck the ground somewhat abruptly, but the damage was only slight. It was then twenty-two minutes past, two, so that the journey had beeii completed m five hours and ten minutes. Renaux arrived only just in time, for shortly afterwards the Puy de Dome was enveloped in mist. The airman complained that his eyes hurt him somewhat. He added that the journey had not been marked by any incidents, but that he had been somewhat hampered bv mist and wind between Aloulins and Clermont.''.- It may be added that Renaux "used - a Maurice Farman biplane fitted with a Renault motor.