inflated motor-cycle tyre; the last-named being
carried by the airman round his body to act as an improvised life-belt.

Engine failure, though a fruitful cause of minor accidents, and of the
breakage of machines, has led to few fatalities; and this has been due
very largely to the fact that, though machines have descended under
dangerous circumstances, and have been wrecked in a manner that would
appear almost certain to kill their occupants, the pilots and
passengers have, as a matter of fact, escaped often with no more than
a shock or bruises. An aeroplane does not strike the ground with the
impact of a hard, unyielding structure. It is essentially frail in its
construction; and this frailness, though it spells destruction for the
machine in a bad descent, provides at the same time an element of
safety for its crew. Take the case for instance of a machine falling
sideways, and striking the ground with one plane or planes. These
planes, built of nothing stronger as a rule than wood, crumple under
the impact. But in their collapse, which is telescopic and to a
certain extent gradual, a large part of the shock is absorbed. By the
time the fusilage which contains the pilot touches ground, the full
force of the impact is gone. And it is the same, often, if a machine
makes a bad landing, say on awkward ground, and strikes heavily
bow-first. Granted that the occupants of the machine are well-placed,
and prevented by retaining belts from being flung from the machine,
they should escape injury from the fact that there is so much to be
broken, in the way of landing-gear and other parts, before the shock
of the impact can reach them in their seats.

Had it not been for the capacity of the aeroplane to alight in awkward
places without injury to its pilot, many lives might have been lost
through descents in which motors have failed. Aviators have been
obliged to land in most unsuitable places: on the roofs of houses, for
instance, in small gardens, and frequently on the tops of trees. If he
finds his engine fail him when he is over a wood or forest, and there
is no chance save to descend upon the trees, a skilled pilot may save
himself as a rule from injury. Planing down, till he is just above the
tree-tops, he will then check suddenly, by a movement of his elevator,
the forward speed of his machine. The craft will come to a standstill
in the air; then, the support gone from its planes owing to the loss
of forward speed, it wil