Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1910-11-02
ENGLAND Gets
BENNETT CUP
International Trophy Is Captured
by Grahame- White
lie BLANC MAKES BEST Time

Would Have Taken Prize and Estab-
ished New Worlds Record but For
Accident Due to Fuel Giving Out
Broc+,ins of the American Team Also
Meets With Disaster When About
to Enter Contest
New York, Oct. 31-Claude Ora
hame-White, flying for the Royal
Aero Club of the United Kingdom,
lifted the Gordon Bennett internation-
al speed trophy from the custody of
America in the fastest time ever COW
cred for the full distance of 100 kilo-
metres (62 IA miles, around a five
kilOmetre course.
His average speed was a fraction
better than 81 miles an hour, and his
fastest lap was pm So IT'S, but the
captain of the French team, Alfred
Leblanc, flying in a similar machine,
a 100 horsepower Bleriot monOplane,
was making each lap on an average Of
20 seconds faster than White ana
would have wOn the cup if he had not
met with a disastrous accident in his
last lap, when he had the race seem
ingly we'll in hand.
LeBlanC'S first lap was a new worlds
record in itself for five Kilometres
Pm As 63s-but he subsequently ex-
ceeded it with a lap done in Pm
A. 32s.
Then, running before the wind I'M
der full power at an estimated speed
Of eighty miles an hour, the feed pipe
from his gasOlene tank to his motor
IoOsened under the incessant Earring
of the engine and he suddenly found
himself with nothing but the mo-
mentum to carry him.
Leblanc was helpless and panic
stricken. He tried to LIT his planes
so that the last few drops of gaso-
lene might filter down into the engine
and lend him strength enough to make
a landing. His steerage way was
gone and when a puff of wind caught
him he drifted sideways, still driving
at tremendous speed, and crashed
head foremost into a telegraph pole.
The pole was fourteen inches thick,
but he broke it into three pieces as if
1t had been a tOOthDick.
LeBlanc's accident was accepted on
every hand with the greatest regret.
White, the winner, admitted that Lee
Blanc had won the race and would
have established a new worlds record
even better than his own except for
his mishap.
Sorry as the French team were to
lose the cup when it was almost
within their grasp they were sorrier
still to see it pass into British hands
When Drexel, of the American team,
came down after only seven laps. the
Frenchmen ran up to him and offered
to lend their machines.
In addition the LeBlanc's 3accident
the day was Narred by serious mis-
hap to Walter Brookins of the Wright
team who took up the new baby"
Wright racer for the first time. The
machine was comparatively untried
and in previous flights Orville Wright
always guided it, Others had pre-
dicted that if the engine ever refused
TO explode the machine could never
glide safely to landing, but would
fall, and that was precisely what hap
pened.
Brookins was just coming around
the turn into the home stretch for a
trial circle, preparatory to entering
the Gordon Bennett race when four
Of his eight cylinders ceased firing
8,
came hurting through the air at such
tremendous speed that when he
touched the earth his front wheels
and forward frame collapsed under
him. The machine stuck it's nose into
the dirt, slowly reared tail upward
and finally collapsed. tonside under
most, with a thud. BrOoEins was
thrown from his seat in the somer-
sault.
An ambulance rushed out to pick
rim up and hurried him to the field
hospital. 1t was later announced that
though he had been painfully injured
in the groin and severely bruised
there were no bones broken and his
life was in no danger.
Leblanc got D!acE eye, deep
cut under the chin and a broad scratch
across the right temple, but was able
TO hobble about and join in cheerful
conversation at the clubhouse cafe be-
fore the day was over.
OF the three Americans selected to
defend the cup by the Aero Club OF
America, only two started and those
two barely before the time limit al
lowed elapsed.