s that I was lying in a heap on what
ordinarily is the under surface of the top plane. The machine in fact
was upside-down. I stood up, held on, and waited. The machine just
floated about, gliding from side to side like a piece of paper falling.
Then it over-swung itself, so to speak, and went down more or less
vertically sideways until it righted itself momentarily the right way
up.

'Then it went down tail first, turned over upside-down again, and
restarted the old floating motion. We were still some way from the
ground, and took what seemed like a long time in reaching it. I looked
round somewhat hurriedly; the tail was still there, and I could see
nothing wrong. As we got close to the ground the machine was doing long
swings from side to side, and I made up my mind that the only thing to
do was to try and jump clear of the wreckage before the crash. In the
last swing we slid down, I think, about thirty feet, and hit the ground
pretty hard. Fortunately I hung on practically to the end, and,
according to those who were looking on, I did not jump till about ten
feet from the ground.'

Those who were looking on were two men, stark naked, who had been
bathing near by. About fifty or sixty people soon collected, and some
time passed before it occurred to any one to remark that these two men
had no clothes on.

The military air force of the Empire had now been reduced to two
serviceable aeroplanes which got to Cambridge, one piloted by Lieutenant
Barrington-Kennett, the other by Lieutenant Cammell, who had been
delayed at Larkhill for some days but had flown by way of London without
mishap. These officers were well received and entertained by the
resident members of the University.

Later in the autumn the Government bought some new machines for the
battalion. In one of these, a two-seater Nieuport monoplane, with a
fifty horse-power Gnome engine, Lieutenant Barrington-Kennett made a
record passenger-carrying flight. On the 14th of February 1912 he flew
249-1/2 miles in four hours thirty-two minutes. In a rapidly advancing
tide every wave makes a record, which is obliterated by the next wave.
But the use of the word 'record', so frequent in the annals of aviation,
does convey some sense of the exhilaration of the pioneers. Another of
the machines supplied by the Government was a Breguet biplane with a
sixty horse-power Renault engine. 'It was a most unwholesome beast,'
says Mr. Cockburn, 'with flexible wings, steel sp