Muriel Hawker

“ Mentally both Harry and Grieve were comfortable, but an attack of seasickness upset Harry a bit. While flying a couple of miles above the dark ocean they did not attempt to probe in their minds the secrets of regions four, five, perhaps six miles below them. Even had they done so, such thoughts could scarcely have had a demoralising effect on souls like theirs. The fallibility of a machine, against which no man can have absolute insurance, was all that robbed them of the joy of completing their intention. ”

“ Aviation, said Harry, had advanced in the direction of knowledge and greater power and control. Never had he heard of an aviator being blown over. On account of the high degree of natural stability in the modern aeroplane it was, he said, a difficult matter to keep a machine on its back when deliberately flying upside down. Natural stability received too scanty attention, and if pilots would let their machines “fly themselves,” so to speak, there would be fewer accidents, was Harry’s opinion.
“Flying,” he said, “is full of interest and is not half so dangerous as the public imagine. ”

“ A man of deeds and few words, his name will go down in the annals of history as a pioneer airman and motorist. The development of the aeroplane as an arm of warfare owes much to his skill and bravery—skill that was not only shown in his handling of experimental machines in the air, but also in the way he applied his remarkable fund of practical technical knowledge to eliminating faults and improving existing designs. His war record as test pilot of Sopwith machines is unmatched.... Mr. Harry G. Hawker, A.F.C., will ever be remembered as one to whom the word fear was absolutely unknown. ”

“ He then crossed above the lake in Albert Park, returning by the seashore to the Elsternwick golf-links, to which he descended in a fine spiral glide, ending in a sharp vertical dive and a beautiful landing at only 34 miles per hour. The flight occupied about 20 minutes. He was received with vociferous cheering. As the good horseman after finishing a journey sees that his horse is fed, watered, and bedded before he seeks his own dinner and repose, so did Harry carefully stow away his machine out of reach of the crowd before yielding to any calls for speeches and interviews. ”

“ Several flying-men had visited Australia before, and one or two had left the ground, but Harry was fairly acclaimed the first to show Australians the immense possibilities of mechanical flight. One who stood by while he carefully went over every nut with a spanner, tested each wire and each moving part, recalled to mind previous flights that failed, and bethought himself care is not the whole of an airman’s equipment. But the tightening of a nut might prevent a broken neck, and it was little wonder that an airman should not overlook anything that might mean the saving of his own neck. ”

“ Sopwith has every reason to be proud of his machine. That he himself is a pilot of skill and great experience, experience gained not only in this country, but abroad, is liable, if we are not careful, to slip one’s mind for the moment, now that, as head of the Sopwith Aviation Co., he is placed in a position where his services are of far more value on the ground than in the air. ”

“ Try as he will, Hawker cannot get the car to answer to the wheel and bear left. The drag of the erring tyre holds it to the right of the track. Careering almost parallel with the fence which runs alongside the straight for a quarter of a mile, the car at last digs its forepart into the corrugated iron sheets, still doing over 80 miles per hour, rips them apart for eleven or twelve yards, gambols obliquely down a four-feet drop, and finishes up on all fours, right side uppermost a paling immovably jammed in one of the front wheels, but otherwise unhurt. ”

“ Hawker, passed Inverness, you did not give us much of a chance of welcoming you, but we now have the chance, and give you a real Highland welcome. We are delighted to see you, and to congratulate you on your wonderful attempt to cross the Atlantic. We are glad to know that you live to fly another day, and I hope that before long you will win that great prize offered by the Daily Mail. The proprietors of that newspaper have done a generous and patriotic action in stimulating aviation—one that deserves the congratulations of the whole country. ”

“ The purr of the engine was distinctly heard by the people as the machine passed above their heads. A white cloud from the exhaust-pipe indicated the path of the machine, like the foam in the wake of a liner. To the onlookers it seemed as if the machine proceeded out to sea during part of the flight, but Harry explained afterwards that he did not actually cross the water, but merely followed the coast. As the aeroplane turned down-wind, Lieut. Petre and Lieut. Harrison, of the Defence Department, estimated its speed at over 100 miles per hour. ”

“ Provost Maitland delivered a brief congratulatory message. Harry’s radiant smile thoroughly captivated the people, who cheered to the echo as the train passed out.
Similar expressions of the public joy occurred at every station between Thurso and Inverness. At Brora most of the population, including the school-children, were on the platform, and loud cheers greeted the arrival and departure. At Invergordon the crowds on both sides of the train were particularly large, and unbounded enthusiasm prevailed. At Alness they were acclaimed by pipers, amid cheers. ”

“ So far as we are able to read between the lines of the letter we have traversed, the meaning of it all is, that all the necessary experimental work is to be carried out by private firms at their own risk and cost, and that the State, which must ultimately benefit, should placidly stand aside and wait until private enterprise has accomplished the perfection of the machine. Never mind what is being done in other countries or what lead they may have or hold, let no penny of public money be spent on the development of aviation, but rather let that be left to the fools and the patriots. ”

“ Hawker, thirty years ago, was an impossibility, but when he died he was the idealised sportsman of the youth of the country, and it was rightly so. Modest in triumph, hard-working, a tremendous “sticker,” yet possessed of that vision without which no man can succeed, he stands out a figure whose loss we mourn even to-day, but whose life and career will serve as an example for others to attempt to follow. ”

“ It is a very real scrap of paper. It contains not only a generous gift from a man to whom the whole of aviation owes so much—and whom we hope shortly to see restored to health—but it is also an emblem of the thoughts of your country for a gallant deed done for the honour of your country. I congratulate you, Mr. Hawker and Commander Grieve.”
Amid loud and prolonged cheers, General Seely then handed The Daily Mail cheque for £5,000 to Harry and Grieve. ”

“ Interviewed by a representative of the Press, Harry said the difference between a modern biplane, such as that he had with him, and an old “box-kite” biplane, an example of which the Australian Government had recently acquired, was as great as that between a motor-car and a bullock wagon or pantechnicon. Aviation, he said, had made great strides during the previous year or two. The “box-kite” biplanes were still regarded as serviceable school machines, but had not sufficiently good speed capabilities for military requirements, which the higher-powered modern machine undoubtedly possessed. ”

“ It does indeed show a singular change in the mentality of the nation that the most popular sporting figures of recent times have been men whose prowess has been associated with their domination over machinery rather than animals. The bicycle was the instrument that first compelled the attention of all to a knowledge of mechanics, the motor-car demanded further knowledge on the subject, but it was not until the advent of the aeroplane that the imagination of the youth of this country was fired to appreciate the necessity for knowledge of mechanics. ”

“ Yet it is not a matter of mere endurance, because the longest over-water flight so far projected will be attempted in most cases with machines not designed to alight on the water. In other words, on setting out, each pilot will know that his life depends on nothing less than absolute success, and is almost certainly forfeit if anything goes wrong. That realisation represents the equivalent of the strain of flying in war service, while the duration of the effort is the multiplication of the strain. ”

“ After his flight with Harry, Senator Millen said: “I cannot say that there was any feature one could describe as thrilling; nothing can make one feel that one is heroic or any sort of a dare-devil: it seems so beautifully simple, so steady, and so safe.” After stating other opinions of his flight, he said: [151] “My flight with Hawker was one of the most enjoyable experiences I have had. Hawker is master of his machine and seems to manipulate it by a movement of his finger. ”

“ Three minutes later Harry was soaring above the western outskirts of St. Johns, climbing steadily the while. With the sun shining on her wings, the aeroplane Atlantic was a glorious sight for those who had the good fortune to see her from below. Steering a steady course, ascending E.N.E., Harry passed over Pleasantville Lake and Raynham’s aerodrome at Quidi Vidi at 2,000 feet, six miles from the start. Looking down, he could see Raynham and his machine surrounded by a big crowd of townsfolk. ”

“ During the latter half of 1912, with the buoyancy of the enthusiast and no idea of the meteoric way in which his latent abilities would be developed, Harry embarked on the flying career on which his heart was set, at a time when the spirit of quantity production had not descended to meet the necessities of war and the aeronautical fraternity was happy in its smallness. ”

“ On Saturday, February 7th, the Melbourne Argus devoted a whole page to descriptive details and pictures of the Tabloid, with which Harry was to give his exhibition in the afternoon. Asked how much there was in the art of flying, Harry replied: “All you have to do is to get off the ground, keep up, and get back again, when and where you want to.” Replying to a request for his opinion as to a certain accident, when an aeroplane fell to the ground and was smashed as if it were an egg, Harry said that the source of the trouble was a heavy machine flying low down near the ground. ”

“ The Sunday rides were continued, generally to Brooklands, where there was always something for Harry to do. The Austro-Daimler had been well “hotted up” and was now capable of 80 miles per hour, and we spent many an exciting time “strafing” anything willing and able on the road. I often wonder what manner of curses we drew on our heads from nervous pedestrians who seem to enjoy ignoring the footpath and walking with their backs to traffic, or those twenty-mile-an-hour motorists who love the very centre of the road and hate to move. ”

“ You do not find Hawker and Company lounging about in clubs in the intervals between their big aviation undertakings, for the sufficient reason that they give themselves no intervals of leisure, because they are always busy working for money, which they know how to look after when they get it. A result is that they never get overawed at the prospect of any one of their aerial feats. Each is to them merely part of the ordinary day’s work, imposing no more strain than any other day’s work. ”

“ Of course there was a wild rush to the spot where Harry, the coolest man in the crowd, was examining his machine. The damage amounted to a splintered propeller, broken landing chassis, and broken interplane bracing-wires.
[159]
Harry’s only comment at the time was: “It was due to pure carelessness. I let the engine get cold.” In so claiming entire responsibility for an accident, Harry unconsciously displayed his love for the cause of aviation. An accident seen by a large crowd is essentially a set-back to the advancement of commercial aviation. ”

“ Winston Churchill, who was then First Lord of the Admiralty, and was on board the Admiralty yacht at Deal when Harry passed overhead, to the Daily Mail wrote:
“Mr. Hawker has achieved a wonderful result, and the accident which prevented complete success in no way detracts from the merit of a feat at once memorable and serviceable. The whole competition has been of real value to British flying. Though we started last, we must persevere till the first place is gained and held.” ”

“ He loved to do things that were worth while, and did them for the sake of doing them, not with any sort of gain in view.”
“The nation has lost one of it most distinguished airmen, who by his skill and daring has contributed so much to the success of British aviation.”—H.M. King George V.
[319]
“The nation is the poorer for the loss of one who always displayed such splendid courage and determination. To such pioneers we owed our supremacy of the air during the war.”—Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd George.
“No man has done more to further the march of modern practical science than has Mr. Harry Hawker. ”

“ Have you ever seen the crank-case of an engine, with the crank-shaft in position, having the bearings tested by a bench run, by power applied from without? I have; and at top speed the cranks move so fast as to appear as one straight line of shining metal, and do not seem to be moving at all. Imagine this Green engine moving at this speed with the pistons in position, and induction, compression, explosion, and exhaust taking place so rapidly, together with all that it means in the way of moving valves, and keeping this up for hours on end! ”

“ This was Harry’s début as a motor-racer, and it was the first day of complete success he had ever had. I well remember him saying that now he felt his luck had changed and he was finished with failures, glorious or otherwise. ”

“ Mechanical achievement has been pushed to such a pitch that endurance on the part of pilot and crew is now demanded in the highest possible degree, whereas many a brilliant aerial performance that has attracted world-wide attention in the past has made the maximum demands on nerve, but practically none at all on sheer physical endurance, as instance looping-the-loop and suchlike feats. Even in the war the average flight did not try the physical endurance of the pilot in any high degree, the strain being instead on the nerve. ”

“ Surely no one will say after this that England cannot build a good aerial engine. Think for one moment of this engine, so light that it only weighs some three pounds per horse-power, pounding away hour after hour, and asking nothing but to be kept well fed with petrol and oil. ”

“ Someone else may succeed where I failed, but I hope that, whoever does succeed, the honour will rest with Britain.
“I may say I have been loyally backed up by my wife; and when a man embarks on an adventure of this kind the spirit in which it is taken by his wife counts for a great deal. She has been splendid through it all, and what credit there is for what has been achieved is hers as much as mine.”
Commander Grieve’s message ran:
“I can only say ‘ditto’ to Harry Hawker. ”