Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-08
BALLOON INDIANA
MAY SET RECORD
BELIEVED ENDURANCE MARK
BROKEN
REPORTED GAS BAG TOUCHED
EARTH FOR WATER
If Pilot Fisher Did Not Land, He Has
Exceeded Time Of Previous
Long Distance
Flights

INDIANAPOLIS, June If the ball
loon Indiana has not been disqualified
by touching earth it has broken the
American endurance record by staying
in the air more than A hours.
Since the balloon started In the ma
tional distance race of the Aero club
of America frem this city on saturday
two reports have been received from IT,
One was that it had touched the
earth in Tennessee and had taken on
water and proceeded toward the south
If this be true the balloon is disquall-
fed under the rules of the lnterna-
tional Aeronautic Federation.
A second dispatch signed by the
pilot, Carl Fisher, and his aid, G. L.
Rirnbaugh. has stated that they
dropped down near enough to earth 10
let down a line and draw up bucket
Of water. Under these conditions the
Indiana has not been disqualified
It is not possible at this time that
the Indiana has broken the distance
record of S25 miles, for it was travel
ing due south and would come to the
gulf coast almost 100 miles short of the
record established by the German bal
Ioon. Pommern in the international race
nearly two years ago for the James
Gordon Bennett cup, which started
from ST Louis and landed at Asbury
Park, n. J..
The last OF IIlG SIN DdlOOiA' -
in the national distance race from
which a definite landing report has
been received is the ST. Louis Ill,
which dropped at Kelso, Tenn, having
covered $40 miles. A. B. Lambert was
pilot and H. e. Honeywell aid.
other Balloons Land
other balloons landed as follows.
The New York, A. Holland Forbes,
pilot, landed at Corinth. Miss, covering
SIS miles in 36 hours and 10 minutes
The University City of st. Louis
Travelled $40 miles, landing at Blanche,
Tenn; time 25 hours and "a minutes.
The Hoosier, Captain Baldwin pilot
Travelled 240 miles, landing at Green
Brier, Tenn.
The Cleveland landed at Columbus,
Ind. forty miles, hours So minutes.
The victory of the Indianapolis men
and their balloon is considered remark-
able inasmuch as they are new at
ballooning. They started on their flight
with but five bags of sand, and We're
lightly provisioned. They made go
miles and were in the air 10 hours. A
message to the Associated Press from
them saws their highest altitude was
$1,000 feet. They were shot at twice as
they went over Kentucky, but were not
hit.
The New York, which landed near
Corinth, Miss, was also shot at Sunday
night while passing over Morgan coun-
ty, Alabama.
Describing the shooting, Mr.. Harmon
said:
Shoots Three Times
Expecting to land in the wilds of
Canada, we We're loaded with provi-
-sions, ammunition. heavy shoes and
clothing and canned goods In an en-
deavor to find another air current to
carry us higher, we decided to throw
away about 300 pounds of this stuff.
Not wishing that it should be lost, we
descended to within 900 feet of the earth
and began distributing it where it
would be found near houses and vii
lagos
when directly over a very small vii
lage, eighty miles north of Birming-
ham, a man with a rifle cried:
Come down here - - -, or
I will bring you down
I'VE continued our course, and he
fired three times, one of the bullets
singing through the basket. officers
have been sent out from Corinth in an
endeavor to arrest the man."