What We Will See
rence I've led the most agitated life a man can lead, risked it hundreds of times, and seen death up close on several occasions; well, do you think I should still practice this "sport", the most difficult of all and which requires extraordinary nerves and cold blood?! No! It's not a "barrel organ",[1] and it is because we, who entered the fight at the end of the last century, recognized the difficulties of aviation, the need for the aviator to have splendid nerves, complete and unconscious contempt for life, which can only be found in youth, and, also, this other gift of youth: the ambition for glory and enthusiasm, I repeat, it was because we recognized all this and we no longer find ourselves in these conditions that we stopped being aviators.
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- ↑ At the last minute I received a special issue of "L'Illustration" about Aviation: ... No squadron without ground... We first go to the penguin... A squadron of planes, even at the front, can have its area anywhere... One should never facilitate too much the two critical moments of the flight: the departure and the landing... trees, telegraphic lines, houses too close force it to go up or down too fast, risking uselessly the accident... It is necessary to be young, solid and healthy...
The old ones, those who have been flying for three or four years, do not reside anymore at the height nor at the duration... GETTING ON A PLANE IS GOING FAST
These sentences from L'llustration seem to have been written to confirm what I have been saying for over 2 years and also as a response to the friend from the country town.
