"Queer?" I echoed. "Unfortunate, terrible, but hardly queer. Why,
it is a common saying among the aeronauts that if they keep at it
long enough they will all lose their lives."
"Yes, I know that," rejoined Kennedy; "but, Walter, have you
noticed that all these accidents have happened to Norton's new
gyroscope machines?"
"Well, what of that" I replied. "Isn't it just barely possible
that Norton is on the wrong track in applying the gyroscope to an
aeroplane? I can't say I know much about either the gyroscope or
the aeroplane, but from what I hear the fellows at the office say
it would seem to me that the gyroscope is a pretty good thing to
keep off an aeroplane, not to put on it."
"Why?" asked Kennedy blandly.
"Well, it seems to me, from what the experts say, that anything
which tends to keep your machine in one position is just what you
don't want in an aeroplane. What surprises them, they say, is
that the thing seems to work so well up to a certain point--that
the accidents don't happen sooner. Why, our man on the aviation
field tells me that when that poor fellow Browne was killed he
had all but succeeded in bringing his machine to a dead stop in
the air. In other words, he would have won the Brooks Prize for
perfect motionlessness in one place. And then Herrick, the day
before, was going about seventy miles an hour when he collapsed.
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