Today, Roland Garros & Tom Kyler

[Claude D]

This Day in History for 23rd September ... 1913 - Roland Garros is 1st to fly over Mediterranean Sea .

 

Roland Garros was born in France in 1882. An experienced pilot, Garros was the first Frenchman to cross the Mediterranean by air. On the outbreak of the first wold war, Garros was sent to serve on the western front..

Garros realised that he would have more success in dogfights if he could find a way of firing a machine-guns through the propeller. Working with Raymond Saulnier, a French aircraft manufacturer, Garros, added deflector plates to the blades of the propeller of his Morane-Saulnier These small wedges of toughened steel diverted the passage of those bullets which struck the blades.

 

 

 

and today ......  happy birthday Tom Kyler

 

[tkyler]

ha....definitely got a laugh out of that.  Thank you much Leglaude!  My wife categorizes me today as "officially" over the hill.

 

TomK