Arizona republican., 1910-10-30
|ENGL|SHMAN TOOK TROPHY GPahame-Whte Winner of Bennett speed Prize
  A PARTICIPANTS FAILURE But for a Disaster Which Threatened Death, Le- Blanc Would Have Been Victor, and the Worlds Record Breaker
4 PARTICIPANTS FAILURE


 hame White, flying for the Royal
 Aero club of the United Kingdom
 lifted the Gordon Bennett interna-
 tional speed trophy from the cus- tody of America today in the fast est time ever covered for the full distance, 100 kilometers (62. I4 miles) around the five kilometer course. His average speed was a fraction better than 61 miles an hour and the fastest lap in minutes, 55.77 sec onds.
 The captain of the. French team, fired Leblanc, flying a similar ma ! chine, a 100-horse power Bleroit monoplane, was making each lap on an average of twenty seconds faster than Grahame White and would have won the cup if he had not met with disastrous accident in the last lap.
 LeBlanc's first lap itself was a new worlds record for five kilo- rneters-2 minutes, 45. 63 seconds, but l subsequently he negotiated it in 2:44 32. Leblanc was running with the wind under full power at an es- l timated speed of 80 miles an hour when the feed pipe of the, gasoline tank to the motor loosened and he suddenly found himself with nothing but the momentum to carry him.
 The racing aeroplanes are trimmed down so fine that they cannot exc cute a proper volplane, or glide, if the engine shuts off; they must come to earth under power and even then they bump severely in landing. Ie- Blanc was helpless and panic strick- en. He tried to life the planes so that the last few drops of gasoline might filter down into the engine and lend him strength enough to make landing His steerage way was gone, and when a puff of wind caught him he drifted sideways, still at tremendous speed, and crashed head foremost into a telegraph pole The pole was fourteen inches thick, but he broke it in three places.
 The topmost fragment fell over backward and smashed down on the fragile planes. The chassis and steel shield which encloses the motor were completely crumpled. Had Leblanc hit the pole in any other manner it is difficult to see how he could have escaped death.
 Grahame White, the winner, admit ted that but for the mishap Leblanc would have won the race and would have established a worlds record even better than his own.
 Charles K. Hamilton of the Amer ican team was enthusiastic. "Le- Blanc is the best track driver in the world" he said. T am going to throw my machine into the scrap heap and buy a Bleroit before leave this track. The biplane is out of date and We might as well admit it.
 cup next year. The Wright broth CTS will also build a new racer to go after it. John B. Moissant will be a third challenger.
 Walter Brookins of the Wright | team, who today took up the new Baby" Wright racer, met with a l serious mishap. Experts had pre- dicted that if the engine ever refused | to explode, the machine could not | glide safely to a landing. but would | fall and that is precisely what hap pened.
 Brookins was coming around the | turn for a trial of the circle prepar- l atory to entering the Gordon Bennett | race, when four of the eight cylin- l ders ceased firing. With only half | power he tried at first to sustain | himself by mounting and then deeid ed it wiser to land. Driven by the wind and his engine he came hurt ling through the air at such a tre- mendous speed that when he touched the earth his front wheels and for ward frame collapsed under him. Brookins was severely hurt but no bones were broken.
 The Gordon Bennett international speed race. distance 100 kiIometers, 6214 miles-was won by Graham White in a 00-horsepower Bleriot, time 1 hour. 1 minute, 4.74 seconds. Second, J. B. Moissant in a 5O-horse- power Bleriot, 1 hour, 57 minutes. 4,S5. second: Third, Ogilvie in Wright. hours, minutes. 36.69 seconds. Fourth. Latham in the hours, 4S minutes. 33.41 seconds. Drexel did not finish.
 The first special for altitude was won by Arch Hoxsey in a Wright. 5,146 feet. Second, Johnstone in Wright, S,235 feet. Second special ]