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THE LAST CRASH
Most aviation stories are just good stories with aviation in them. We have no objection to yarns of that sort. Those that we have published have been decidedly good reading. This aviation story is different--just how different you will realize as you read it. "The Last Crash" is something new in fiction--a real air story. Its author is a man who knows not only the technique of the airman's trade but also its spirit. --The Editor
John Norris, whom you will remember as the man who flew the first straightaway from Langstrom Field to Cristobal, had a touch of the mystic in him, for all he was the sort of a man that good men favor. And in this, it may interest you to know, Norris wasn't different from most men of his calling. He was different, however, in this respect, that he was outspoken with his ideas about unearthly matters whereas most airmen keep their mysticism to themselves.
Being a fatalist is one of the characteristic peculiarities of the flyer which he shares, perforce, in common with other men whose professions keep their spiritual elbows raw with constant rubbing against the harsh specter of sudden and violent death.
"There must be an explanation for the things that happen in the air," Norris once affirmed. "The papers call them 'accidents' but don't you believe it. They aren't accidents. They are consummations.
"I think this: A man is given a course to run; he runs it; and then he is wiped out. The manner, the time and the place of each man's last crash is already marked up on somebody's office tickler at Cosmic headquarters.
"Otherwise--why? Why should men like Hawker and Alcock, with all their biggest risks behind them, wash out on puny little expeditions that they undertook with no more thought than they would have given to drinking a cup of tea? Why should a ship running free and smooth catch fire in the air, for no good reason that is earthly?
"There is a reason, of course, but it has nothing to do with physical or mechanical flaws, if you ask me. The flaw is not the cause. You've got to look for the cause in something behind the flaw. Did you ever hear of 'Last Crash' Cobb?"
The story of Billy Cobb, and how he came to his last crash, was one of Norris' classics. There is no denying that it points a moral if you want to look at it that way.
This is what Halliday, the old crew chief, told the accident-investigating officer.
The crew chief was heading across the field, calling "Ambulance!" as he went, before the tangle of ripped canvas, splintered spars and tortured wires came to rest on its back, quivering.
"Well, sir," the crew chief deposed, "like I said, I stopped when I seen the captain was starting to crawl out. I thought he was all right. I seen officers crawl out o' lots worse'n that, in my time, an' start cussin' as healthy as you please.
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