PLUNGING DOWN FROM THE CLOUDS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12538, 8 May 1915, Page 4 (Supplement)

PLUNGING DOWN FROM THE CLOUDS.

How does it feel to fall through the air at the rate of 200 miles an hour:-' Such a fall as that hy which Lincoln. Beaehey lost his life recently at. the Panama-Pacific Exposition, while it may thrill us with horror to behold it or to read of it, leaves us'wondering what can be the sensation of one facing eternity in a plunge through space. Strangely enough, a story appears in the London Times just at this time which gives us, as nearly as possible, a definite idea of the psychological experiences of such a fall. An airman who was ordered, it appears, to embark on a bomb-dropping expedition, found himself, shortly after starting, within a hostile zone of fire and rose into the clouds for safety. Here he became lost. and for .some time had no idea of the angle at which he was Hying. Then came the catastrophe, as he relates:

"1 pulled the elevator . . . and the next moment everything became perfectly silent round about me. 1 knew then that 1 had overdone the pull and forced the machine up almost vertically, and in consequence had stopped her. And 1 knew that now she would probably slip back or fall over sideways." Which it was that happened the aviator never knew, but the disastrous effect soon made itself evident, and there followed a plunge to earth, of which he gives a most vivid account: "1 felt my holding-in strap tighten, and knew that 1 was upside down. It was still as dark as night. 1 tried to right myself, and failed. 1 tried frantically. 1 began to feel that it was all over with me, and 1 experienced the most acute agony of mind. But suddenly and quite unexpectedly that fpcling passed away. 1 had tried everything and failed. I was conscious of that. Now a wonderful sense of calm took the place of the anguish. It was the most easy and delightful sensation I have ever felt. And meanwhile I was falling, 1 suppose, at the rate of about i'oo miles an hour. "'The next thing I remember is that my holding-in belt bin.-t and that automatically 1 jammed my knees farther under the indicator-board and gripped the seat •with my elbows. 1 had taken my feet of the rudder-bar. I was some inches out of the seat, and the machine was upside down. I only knew it was upside down in a vague way, because 1 had left the seat. I was quite happy, aand I had no anxiety of any kind. 1 d''d. not feel anything. ' Then in a moment the aeroplane fell out of the cloud, and I saw the sea rushing up toward me. My hands automatically moved the controls, and at 1000 feet the machine righted herself. Then at intervals I heard' a curious, snapping sound in my ears, and realised that I was deaf. . I could nflt hear ray own engine."

While the physical experience of tbiw deafness, brought on by the sudden atmospheric changes, was bad enough, the phychological effect was worse, for it deepened measurably the spth-c of morbid depression that he felt upon bis return to safety. This was at first of the greatest intensity, but the aviator managed finally to master it and to continue on his bomb-dropping expedition w'thout alighting. Soon an opportunity came to discharge his missiles. Says the Pall Mall Gazette, summari?ing the Times story : "The first of these achieved' its purpose, and. he saw that it had done so. Immediately a reaction of feeling set in. He confessed : 'I was so happy that I shouted.l couldn't simply contain myself. I felt in all my pockets for sometog else to throw down. All I could: find was my matchbox.' and- so I threw | that.' It testifies to the splendidly attuned state of his nerves that next day he was able to carry out his work more or loss as if nothing had happened. In proof that the nreoplane had really turned upside down, it was discovered that the airman's revolver had fallen from its pocket on the machine."