DRAMATIC RACE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12386, 6 December 1909, Page 8

DRAMATIC RACE.

"Express" Special Correspondent

DONCASTER, October 19. A race in the air between two flying machines going at express speed was the most dramatic; feature of the Doncaster flying contests to-day. ' The competitors were L e Blon, the hero of last night's flight, and Roger Rommer. They wene competing for the Leeds Cup, which goes to the man who flies the longest distance in forty-five minutes.

There was no flying at all until pnst throe in the afternoon. The wind blew eleven miles an hour, and the flying men stopped in their sheds. Crowds gathered, bards played, and every one waited, watching the cone in the centre of the course for the white flag which tells that flight was possible.

A few minutes after three the drop en:"tains of Mr Cody's shed were suddenly rung up, and his giant machine, on repairing which he has spent three days, stood revealed.

With a roar like a motor omnibus the heavy machine moved down the wooden tramway from its shed and out into the open with Mr Cody perched in his great cage. The machine scattered the onlookers and then rose bolk■ily and flew swiftly. Mr Cody whizzed past the crowded shilling enclosure and up the hill where he came to grief on Saturday morning, and circled without mishap. Again he flew, rising at times fifteen 'feet from the turf in his two-ton machine, but on completing the S3cond round he went hack to the shed, to the disappointment of the crowds. RACE IN THE SKY. Le Blon started out at 3.42 in Irs Bieriot, and was followed in the air by SommtT in his Faiman biplane. The rare spectacle of two flying machines in the sky chasing each other tound the wide circle appealed to the waiting crowd as nothing else had done. First flew Le Blon dipping and soaring gracefully, and after him came Sommer. Round and! round went the racers in the air, and the e:'owd with aching necks followed them with their eyes. Once it looked as though Sommer would overtake his opponent, for a . sudden gust of wind seized the little white bird and it fluttered on one wing. But it did not stop or fall, and a tew seconds later Sommer, who had suffered much from the wind,, settled down to rest.

Le Blon continued the flight alone, and the wind tossed the bird hero and there in the air. Once it was driven right across the plain, and again and again it hung balanced on the tip of its pinion. But .at last the wind won the unequal battle. Le Blon dived down to safety, and when I went to him as he scrambled out, he said with a shrug, "T.rop de vent; e'est impossible." His record was 14 miles 1,393 yards in 20mins 37 l-ssecs, cr more than forty miles an hour.