Los Angeles herald., 1910-10-26
TOMBSTONE FLIES
1908 FEET; LIFTS
!. AMERICAN RECORD
Manbird in Wright'S Team Takes
Cloud LaureIS Recently
Won by DrexeI
RIVAL BEATEN BY 66 YARDS
Belmont Park Aerial Contests
EnIivened by Latham's Peril
GUS SWoop from Sky
RIVAL BEATEN BY sc YARDS
ASSOCIATED Press)

NEW YORK, Oct. 25.-The American
altitude record that j. Armstrong
Drexel proudly brought down out of
the clouds yesterday in his Bleriot
monoplane was snatched from his grip
by Ralph Johnstone today in a head
less Wright climber
Drexel reached 71O5 feet, but John
stone topped him today by 1913 feet,
with new mark of 1903 feet. He
came down chilled to the bone and
his goggles trimmed with frost.
For half an hour he battled with a
snow storm above the clouds, seeking
still higher levels.
Grahame- White was first out in the
hourly distance trials. Hubert Lath-
am was his competitor. When engine
trouble forced1Whites Farman biplane
off the field it looked as if Latham,
in his Antoinette, would have the event
to himself. White saw that the scan
tiest score whatsoever would bring
him second place, and late in the hour
tinkered up his collicky engine to last
two rounds, and took down the easiest
$100 of the tournament.
HoXsey and Johnstone both went up
for altitude. In the haste of the mo-
ment Johnstone started without a bar
ograph. When he came down he had
nothing to show how hign he had gone
and was left unplaced.
Count de LeSseps pointed up much
later than the two Wright pupils, but
caught them both, and, soaring above
them, brought down the prize for the
first hour.
WHITE FAILS TO FLY
The second hourly distance event
was a pursuit race Grahame- White
tried his Farman again, found it un-
reliable, took it off the field for re-
a phGnnnn bn
gained was cut down by speedier ri
walls who started later. White took out
his fast Bleriot monoplane. He gained
steadily on McCurdy in a Curtiss BIZ
plane, but the latter finished first with
a lap to the good. McCurdy fouled
two pylons in trying to cut the cor
ners fine, however, and the forfeit
cost him first place.
HoXsey and Johnstone went up for
altitude again, accompanied by Lath-
am, in his Antoinette. Lathams ma
chine began to caper like a buck and
wing dancer. The history of the An
toinette, however, is Lathams history
He boasts that he has broken every
part of it at least twelve times. Once
he fell 1000 feet, perfectly helpless, but
his planes parachuted and saved him.
The crowd thought Latham was only
doing somersaUlts TO please them, but
he was not;' he was in real peril.
He had started to descend when he
felt the rain and was caught in a wind
flaw. Tossed to one side and the other,
first up and then down, he tilted his
planes and shot down in a steep swoop.
In matter of seconds the rush of
his descent had eaten up the half mile
between him and earth and he was
hidden behind a clump of trees.
LATHAM is UNINJURED
Ely in a Curtiss biplane went out to
reconnoiter and found Latham with
nothing worse than a punctured wing
and a broken skid.
The last event of the day was full of
uncertainty and suspense. F. w. Rad
ley of the British team flashed over
the line in a Bleriot and vanished into
the east before it was known to any
but the Judges that he had started in
the cross country race of twenty miles
to a captive balloon ten miles east of
the course. Radley made the twenty
miles in 10 minutes 4S 2-5 seconds.
Moissant in passenger-Carrying
Bleriot started almost as Radley fin
ished and was shortly followed by Nc
Curdy in a Curtiss biplane and Drexel
in a Bleriot, at intervals of approx
mately one minute. All three OF them
got lost and Drexel and McCurdy never
finished.
Much interest attached to the first
appearance today of the new Wright
racer. With Orville Wright in the pi
lots chair, it was given two tryouts.
Garros, of the French team, caught it's
time for one lap in the morning trial
at I'M 26s, and in the afternoon trial
at I'm 28s.
The unofficial figures are to be COM
pared with those given out by the
judges today for the fastest lap made
yesterday by Aubrun, in a Bleriot,
I'm, AS.
Tomorrow the first elimination heats
in the trials for the Gordon Bennett
international trophy will be begun.
First hourly attitudes First, De Les
seps, (Bleriot) 6391 feet; second, Hox-
sey (Wright) 5796 feet; Johnson forgot
his Paragraph and was unplaced.
Second hourly altitude: First, John
stone (Wrigh) 1903 feet (new American
record); second, Hoxsey, (Wright)
1882 feet; third, Latham, (Antoinette)
3772 feet.
First hourly distance: First, Lath-
am, (Antoinette) 10 laps, penalized one
lap for fouling pylon, time Sam, SO
3-5s: second, Grahame-White, (Far-
mani two laps, time 6m, 81 2-5s; no
third.
Second hourly distance: First, Gra-
hame-W White, (Farman) IA laps, Sam,
16 3-5s; second, Mars, (Curtiss) 13 laps,
penalized two laps for fouling pylon,
ism, 20 lbs; third, McCurdy, (Curtiss)
II laps, 21m, 43 lbs.
Totalization of duration: Hoxsey
(Wright) and Johnstone, (Wright) tied
for first place with two hours; third,
Latham, (Antoinette) one hour.
Cross country Won by Radley,
(Bleriot) elapsed time 19m, As 2-5s; sec
ond, Moissant, (Bleriot) elapsed time,
5Sm, 26s; Drexel and McCurdy did not
finish.