The aerial exploit of the mechanic Richard

Marcel Richard, the mechanic who climbed, in mid-flight, into the fuselage of a Paris-London aircraft, piloted by Portal, in difficulty over English lands and who maintained himself in this perilous position for forty-five minutes, to reach the Lympne aerodrome and ensure a landing without damage", is a young man of twenty-eight, at first friendly, with a lively look, an open mind, originally from Bordeaux. During the war, he valiantly did his duty as a marine fusilier.

We surprise him, at Le Bourget, at work on his aircraft, in one of the immense cement hangars which border the airport grounds. His hand is still bandaged, following the burns caused by the hot oil which escaped from the ailing engine.
He tells us with great simplicity about his great exploit, which he seems to consider only as an ordinary obligation of his job.
"I had thought at first," he explained, "that a throttle control shaft had come loose, which required a few seconds of repair. So I went out through the crew hole and had to hold on to the shrouds to resist the high air pressure. Then I slid down the lower plane to the engine fuselage, and I "sandwiched" myself between it and the tanks, straddling the spars. This is when the hot oil projections were the most annoying.
" But I quickly realized that there was a break in the control, a more serious problem, but not irreparable. For a quarter of an hour, I reattached the broken lever arm with wire and kept the engine at full throttle, which allowed it to gain height. The plane thus reached 1,600 meters.
" I wanted to return to the cabin, but, while I was going there, my repair gave way. I then signalled to the pilot that I was taking my place again by the engine, and for another thirty minutes I controlled its operation by hand.
"Soon it was time to land at Lympne. Several hundred people quickly surrounded us; we were congratulated, photographed, and assailed with questions.
"Why so much emotion?" concluded the courageous "mechanic" modestly. "I have only overcome a difficulty that one must be prepared to deal with when working in my field." (Radio.)