More than 150 lives were saved by parachutes last year, and so a week ago Sergeant Archie Atherton, crack parachutist of the U. S. Marine Corps, opened a school for parachuting in San Diego, Calif. Sergeant Atherton is known as the originator of "spot landing" and averaged a drop a day for a year.
Lt. Eyre reached for his map, missed it; it slipped into a corner of his cockpit. Two thousand feet over Essex, England, he undid his safety straps and reached again. Unintentionally he pressed the control stick forward. The plane stalled with a start and an astonished flier found himself catapulted into midair. With presence of mind he pulled his parachute cord, landed unhurt, lighted a cigaret, and addressed a gaping rustic: "I wonder where my kite's gone."
For three months, in the gold rush of '49, George Gordon Gardner toiled his way across the continent. Last week his granddaughter, Miss Sue Hill, flew from Piedmont, Calif., to New Brunswick, N. J., in a mail plane, completing the trip in 34 hours' flying.
Landing is far more difficult than flying, but new instruments tested last week in Paris promise to make it easy. Henry Farman, air pioneer, and half a dozen French army pilots tested instruments that can be used in darkest night or fog, because they make sight unnecessary. Where the pilot has confidence that a clear field lies below, he can trust the new instruments to register exact distances from the ground.
Five thousand ports of shelter are now available for American airmen. The Department of Commerce last week listed 1,075 airports and nearly 4,000 other fields adequate for landing. California leads the nation with 115 air fields, Texas has 90, and Pennsylvania 68.
Schools are also plentiful, the biggest being in Marshall, Mo., the Marshall Flying School, now in its third year, with 263 students.