Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 62, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 March 1917 — BIRDS STILL KEEP SECRET OF FLYING [ARTICLE]

BIRDS STILL KEEP SECRET OF FLYING

Man Has Much to Learn In Aorlai Navigation. From Winged ( Tribe. Although of recent years aviation has m_de tremendous strides,- the feats of present day aviators cannot compared with those of nature’s flyers in speed, endurance, lifting and* sighting power, birds beat aviators every time. A common swallow, for instance, can travel In the air at the rate of 120 miles an hour. The vulture when swooping on its prey cuts through the atmosphere at

nearly 150 miles an hour. Some time ago a swallow flew from Antwerp to Complegne, a distance of , 140 miles, in sixty-eight minutes, the ' flight being timed by observers, who returned the bird’s average rate of speed at 128 miles an hour. The fastest an aeroplane has ever 1 traveled is 108 miles an hour, and this ' speed was only obtained by building a little freak machine, terribly dangeroua to handle. Then, again, birds can fly for twenty-four hours at. a stretch with--out descending, even in boisterous weather. After eight or nine hours’ continued flying an aviator is wearied both mentally and bodily, and, if he had strong winds to fight, he is often in a state of collapse. No flyer could carry out long flights across sea and land like cuckoos, for instance, which, any naturalist will tell you, often start from English shores and find their way to Africa. At a height of 10,000 feet the earth In detail is most difficult for an aviator to see, and it is only with strong glasses that he can discern even large buildings and rivers. But, at high altitudes, hawks and kites can spy tiny lizards and field mice on the earth, for their sighting powers are twenty times stronger than those of aviators.—Kansas City Star.