End of Sohn

Two miles above Daytona Beach two years ago, a slim, sandy-haired professional parachutist from Lansing, Mich, named Clement Joseph ("Clem") Sohn stepped from a plane, spread homemade "bat wings" of canvas sewed between his legs and arms, swooped, banked, looped for 4.000 ft. before floating to earth by para chute--first man to "fly" with his own wings. Thereafter Clem Sohn made a tidy living doing his spectacular stunt at fairs and air meets. Only one man tried to copy him--Parachutist Floyd David, who plummeted to death at Flint, Mich, on his maiden try.

Last week Clem Sohn was in Vincennes, France, to do his specialty for 100,000 spectators at an air circus. While the crowd howled with delight, Sohn stepped from his Farman at 10,000 ft., pirouetted toward the ground at 2,000 ft. per minute.

Like a swallow chasing flies, he flitted through the sky, a trail of flour tracing his arabesques against the blue. Finally, only 1,000 ft. above the field, he pulled the ripcord of his parachute. It failed to open.

When 250 ft. from the ground he pulled the cord of his emergency 'chute. It also failed, opening only enough to foul the canvas wings, thus prevent him from desperately attempting his prime ambition --a stall landing without aid from a parachute. Said a witness: "When I realized Clem Sohn was doomed, I felt worse than ever during the World War. . . . The hush coming over the crowd was the most impressive thing I have ever seen. . . . And when Clem Sohn hit the ground, it sounded like an explosion."

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