formance or to perform an even more difficult evolution. The result
may very well end in disaster, and

FAMOUS AIRMAN KILLED

is seen on most of the newspaper bills.

The daring of some of our professional airmen is notorious. There is
one particular pilot, whose name is frequently before us, whom I have
in mind when writing this chapter. On several occasions I have seen him
flying over densely-packed crowds, at a height of about two hundred feet
or so. With out the slightest warning he would make a very sharp and
almost vertical dive. The spectators, thinking that something very
serious had happened, would scatter in all directions, only to see the
pilot right his machine and jokingly wave his hand to them. One trembles
to think what would have been the result if the machine had crashed to
earth, as it might very easily have done. It is interesting to relate
that the risks taken by this pilot, both with regard to the spectators
and himself, formed the subject of comment, and, for the future, flying
over the spectators' heads has been strictly forbidden.

From 1909 to 1913 about 130 airmen lost their lives in Germany, France,
America, and the British Isles, and of this number the British loss
was between thirty and forty. Strange to say, nearly all the German
fatalities have taken place in air-ships, which were for some years
considered much safer than the heavier-than-air machine.

CHAPTER XLVIII. Some Technical Terms used by Aviators

Though this book cannot pretend to go deeply into the technical side
of aviation, there are certain terms and expressions in everyday use by
aviators that it is well to know and understand.

First, as to the machines themselves. You are now able to distinguish a
monoplane from a biplane, and you have been told the difference between
a TRACTOR biplane and a PROPELLER biplane. In the former type the screw
is in front of the pilot; in the latter it is to the rear of the pilot's
seat.

Reference has been previously made to the FUSELAGE, SKIDS, AILERONS,
WARPING CONTROLS, ELEVATING PLANES, and RUDDER of the various forms
of air-craft. We have also spoken of the GLIDING ANGLE of a machine.
Frequently a pilot makes his machine dive at a much steeper gradient
than is given by its natural gliding angle. When the fall is about one
in six the glide is known as a VOL PLANE; if the descent is made almost
vertically it is called a VOL PIQUE.

In some cases a PANCAKE descent is made.