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PAGE FOUR
THE MOUNTAIN EMPIRE BULLETIN
SEPTEMBER 1, 1936

LOUIS BLERIOT OF EARLY DAY FAME IS DEAD

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[[caption]] CURTISS SWINGS LEFT TO AVOID HITTING SOMNER; BLERIOT WAS FIRST, CURTISS SECOND, IN THE FIRST AERIAL RACE EVER STAGED, RHEIMS, FRANCE, AUG. 1909 [[/caption]]

A typically modern, skeletonized news dispatch states that Louis Bleriot, a pioneer birdman, is dead. He died on Aug. 2, last, at Paris, from a heart attack. He was 64 years old at the time of his demise, and is survived by three married daughters and two grown sons.

It is Aug. 25, 1909, on the Plain of Bethany, near Rheims, France. This is the second day of the world's first international aviation meet, and every French airman of any consequence is on the scene, ready and eager to engage in a spirited competition for the $45,000 in cash prizes which have been offered, and for the honor and glory to be gained by a superior display of airmanship.

Housed in tent hangars on the Plain are five Wright biplanes, manufactured under French license, and three aviators taught
[[text cut off]]
Beach, aviation editor of the Scientific American a postcard whch reads as follows:

"Bleriot has five machines here, one 80 h.p. Outside of that I am fastest, I think."

On this day President Fallieres, of the French Republic, is a guest of honor in the crowded stands. Paulhan, veteran flyer of a month's experience has made a 2 hour and 43 minute flight, and Rogier, in his cumbersome, side paneled Voisin, has traveled waveringly a short distance down the course, crashed, and broken his nose.

Now comes the start of the first lap of the Prix du Tour de Piste - a single circuit of the ten kilometer course. The American, Curtiss, in his 40 h.p. biplane is the sixth and last man to get away in what soon proves to be a mad scramble, in the lack of any passing regula[[text cut off]

$30,000 Grand Prix de la Champagne, a distance over a closed circuit event.

Good weather prevails. One after the other, Farman, Latham and Somner take off from the Plain. Tissandier, Bunau-Varilla, Curtiss and several others join the procession at intervals. Latham flies high at 150 feet, while Farman and Somner barely skim the ground on their first circuits. After three laps, or thirty kilometers, Somner lands. Bunau-Varilla covers about the same distance. Curtiss comes down soon after.

Latham drops out at the eleventh lap. Tissandier is down after completing eleven circuits. Count de Lambert land after his eleventh circuit.

Only Farma remains aloft. Dusk creeps over th field, and he is still in the air. Darkness envelopes him [[text cut off]]

WILLARD BEATS GLENN H. CURTIS AT INDIANAPOLIS

CINCINNATTI, Ohio, Nov. 1, 1909 (E. B.) - The three day aeronautical exhibition, held here last month, is said to be the first time two heavier-than-air craft have ever been pitted against one another in actual competition, in this country.

One machine was flown by Glenn H. Curtiss, of Hammondsport, N. Y., the other by Chas. F. Willard, a member of the New York Aeronautical society. The machine which Curtiss used was entered in the aviation meeting, at Rheims, last August and won the Gordon Bennett speed trophy after a thrilling contest with several French aeroplanes. Willard's machine was built by Curtiss for the Aeronautical Society last June. Both craft are similar in appearance, but the Curtiss machine has the more powerful motor.

The competition was held in the Latonia racetrack near hear. Cash prizes were posted for altitude and speed, both contests being won by Willard, after Curtiss had damaged his aeroplane by rolling into a wagon when landing.

Willard's machine is christened the "Golden Flier." After he had received one lesson from Curtiss last summer Willard is said to have taught himself to completely master the air ways, and to have become as skilled in the operation of the craft as its builder.

During the summer and fall Willard gave exhibitions in flying at Toronto, Athens, Ga., Richmond, Va., and Philadelphia. At Toronto, circling out over Lake Ontario, he made the first over-water flights in this country. Three times he received bad duckings when his engine failed.

Several competitive flights in dirigibles were made by Roy Knabenshue, Lincoln Beachey and Cromwell Dixon, during the three-day meet here. Dixon is a seventeen year old boy. His airship was entirely constructed by himself.


FOWLER ENDS OCEAN TO OCEAN FLYING VOYAGE

Jacksonville, Fla., Feb. 15, 1912 (E. B.) - Ending a coast to coast flight, which he had started in Los Angeles last October, Robert G. Fowler, in his Wright biplane, today flew 18 miles to San Pablo beach, and then returned here.

Fowler's flight, which covered over 2,500 miles and occupied four months, is the second transcontinental voyage on record, the first having been completed by C. P. Rodgers two months ago. Both men started their flights in an effort to win a $50,000 prize offered by William Randolph Hearst but failed to complete them within the time limit of thirty days, specified in the rules governing the award.

Fowler is 28 years old, and a native of Gilroy, Calif. Prior to his final successful start on October 19, he had made two unsuccessful efforts to clear the high mountain barriers of California. His first effort, on Sept. 11, was a 126 mile flight from San Francisco to Auburn, but on the following day he failed to surmount a 7000 foot mountain pass, and wrecked his aeroplane in some trees at Alta, Calif.

On September 24 the second attempt from northern California was made, and again resulted in failure, after which Fowler decided to try his luck from Los Angeles. On Oct. 19 he flew nine miles to Pasadena. On Oct. 21 he flew 60 miles further, and on Oct. 24 he reached Yuma, Ariz.

On Nov. 5, in a forced landing, the aeroplane was stuck in the sand 15 miles west of El Paso, and not until Nov. 13 did Fowler reach the Texas city. Landing near Fort Worth, a bull charged his plane and wrecked it.

On Feb. 8, after many mishaps, he rose from the flying field at Quitan, 82 miles east of here, and headed for the Atlantic ocean. As he approached Jacksonville, Aviators Harold Katner and Max Millie 

Transcription Notes:
image - sketch of four planes in aerial race making turn around stands, on sketch is written '"Prix du Tour de Piste" Rheims, France Aug. 1909'