Los Angeles herald., 1910-10-25
DrexeI Scores New American Al
titude Record at Competition
in Belmont Park
BRooKINS CAPTURES HoNoRS
Models Never Seen Before in
America Amaze Spectators
at International Meet
ASSOCIATED Press)

NEW YORK, Oct. 24.-The third day
of the international aviation meeting
at Belmont Park made up for all the
damp, cold and disappointment of the
first two days.
A new American record for altitude
was set down to the credit of j. Arm
strong Drexel, and the competition in
other events was at all times full of
zest.
Drexel scared for altitude in his rec
ord fight at $40 p. M, five minutes
before the second hourly altitude con-
test closed. In great circles he crept
into the wind, pointing higher and
higher into the glare of the setting
sun to height of 71O5 feet. He planed
above the crowd like a hawk search
ing the moors, so high that he seemed
almost immobile against the blue.
His descent was swift, and he land
ed safely in the middle of the field.
There was immediate surmise that he
had approached, If not established, a
new record, but no figures were avail
able until his barograph had been I'M
sealed and the reading of the stylo-
graph on the sheet inside it exam
ined.
RECORD SHOWS 71Ob FEET
The instrument shows both the height
and the time at which the flight was
made. The reading was remarkably
sharp, and showed he had risen 7105
feet. The best previous American rec
ord was 6175, made by Walter Brook
ins at Atlantic City, and Drexel's own
best record made last summer In
Great Britain was $3.50 feet, at the
time a worlds record. The worlds
altitude record now is 9186 feet, held
by Henry Wynmalen, a Hollander.i
There was some confusion as to Just
what honors Drexel was entitled to
for his splendid performance today. He
had risen five minutes before the sec
ond hour for altitude flights closed
and he was not entered in the grand
altitude event. According to the rules.
1.-The measurement of attitudes will
cease to be made at the end of the
hour" Drexel did not reach his full
height until long after the hour had
closed.
Walter Brookins also went up for
altitude in Baby Wright biplane-
a machine precisely like the new head
less fliers that the Wrights brought
out this summer, but with a sharper
upward slant to the planes, thereby
enabling the aviator to point up more
sharply and climb faster.
SECOND HONORs FOR BROOKINs
Brookins went up 1882 feet, accord
ing to the barograph, and won second
altitude honors for the day. At the
apex of his climb his engine, which
had given him some trouble before,
stopped dead, with both propellers
pointing straight up into the air. so
that in gliding to earth with no power
on they afforded him the least as
sistance in breaking the rush of his
descent. He came down whizzing,
l. I,rIF 1aq h.
and struck with bump that broke
his forward landing skid. The damage
was small, however and he was not
hurt in the least.
Next to the performance of Drexel
the crowd took most enjoyment in the
appearance of models never seen in
America before. They were the new
Wright climber, used by Brookins in
his altitude flight today; tiny Demois-
selle, called the humming bird OF
aeroplanes, but which looks more like
a butterfly, and flying fish Antoin-
cite.
TEN BIG MACHINES ALOFT
In all there were ten machines aloft
at once. Latham piloted the Antoin-
cite. He sat we'll back in the sharp
stem, shaped like the stem of a speed
launch, with which it cuts the air, and
the two wheels with which he con-
trolled the long, slender wings could
be seen necessarily turning backward
and forward under his hands. The
craft was fast and took the turns with
a precision and daring that the Bleriot
monoplanes, more batlike and blunter,
could not attain.
In the straightaWays, however,
Latham was not so fast. F. w. Radly,
an Englishman, in trimmed-down
Bleriot, went by him as If he had been
chained to stump But Radly had
frequent engine trouble and never
figured seriously in any of the con-
tests of the day. Latham was flying
a 50-horsepower, S-cylinder machine.
His 16-cylinder, horsepower ma
chine, in which he will compete for
the Gordon Bennett cup. will not ar
rive until tomorrow. This powerful
racer is supposed to be capable of
seventy miles an hour against the
seventy-six credited to the 100-horse-
power Bleriot of LIE Blanc. Thus far
neither of the 100-horsepower machines
owned by the French team has been
seen in action.
What the new Curtiss and Wright
racing models can do is conjecture
They have been kept close under cover,
but thus far none of the American ma
chimes have shown themselves in the
same class with the foreign mono
planes.
There was one time this afternoon
when Latham in an Antoinette passed
a Wright machine at the turn and Rad
ley followed and passed the Antoinette
in the stretch.
AERIAL RACERS CROSS LINE
Ralph Johnstone and Arch Hoxsey,
both in headless Wright biplanes, were
circling the field side by side today
when the signal bomb broke above
them, announcing that the meet had
been officially opened. They wheeled
sharply and crossed the line with Hox-
sey slightly ahead
Grahame- White in Clifford B. Har-
mons biplane followed them in a few
seconds.
rocket with his fifty horsepower Bleriot
CONTINUED on Page Threel