Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-04-27
CONTEST BECOMING KEEN
Noted Aviators Will Fly at Meet
at Benning Next Month.
MOTOR CYCLE RACES PLANNED
Boys Competition With Airship
Models Will Also Be an In
teresting Feature.

All aboard for the aeroplane. The
coming Sunday will see the last of the
coupons printed in The Star that will be
good for votes in the contest for the
aeroplane ride arranged for by The Star
for the coming aeroplane meet at Ben
ming. This meet will be held May ), &
and by the Curtiss aviation team.
The Star has arranged for three of its
readers to take aeroplane rides, and the
coupons printed in The Sunday Star are
the only passports. Each Of the cou-
pons is good for ten votes In the same
issue OF The Star there will be printed a
blank subscription for The Sunday Star.
This. properly filled in, is good for 100
votes.
The contest for chance to take an
aerOplane ride is keen, but the experience
is still possible for three of The Star s
readers. The aviators at the meet will
be j. A. d. McCurdy, Lincoln Beachey
and Hugh Robinson. three of the best
men in the flying world The trips are
to be for not less than five minutes, and
when an aeroplane is going sixty miles
an hour a good distance can be Travelled
in that time.
Trade Riders to Compete.
One Of the features of the meet will be
the motor cycle races that have been ar
ranged for each day These will be open
to noyices and professionals and to trade
riders. A trade rider is one who is riding
as a business and is employed by mo-
tor cycle agent or repair firm, but who
has never competed for cash or against
professional
The races are held under the sanction
and the rules of the Federation Of Ameri-
can Motorcyclists The first day there
will be two novice races Of three miles
each and five-mile open and ten-mile
open races, the first free to all machines
and the second restricted to trade riders.
The second day there will be ten-mile
scratch race. pursuit race and a five
mile scratch race open to District and
Maryland riders.
On the last day there will be a five-mile
race for stock machines. ten-mila
handicap open to all classes, a three
mile open race and a five-mile handicap.
The fastest machine each day will race
against an aeroplane. All the races are
for cups and merchandise prizes. The
entry blanks can be obtained from the
National Aviation Company, Union Trust
building.
Aside from the flights of the big ma
chimes. there is great interest in the boys
competition with flying models This is
a new sport among boys in Washington.
The Washington Junior Aero Club was
organized about a fortnight ago by Ar
thur G. Wells. and since then there have
been forty-tive models constructed for
the contest These are both monoplanes
and bplanes. Most of them are built on
a. new model. SO that they are light and
strong and able to carry more powerful
motors than most of the models that
heretofore have been flown in this coun-
try.
Hope to Beat Record.
The French distance record for model
flight is nearly GOO feet, while the Ameri-
can record is less than 800. 1t is thought
that some of the little machines entered
for the Benning meet will be able to
break the American record.
All the boys are deeply interested, and
most of them express a strong wish to
become aviators and aeroplane builders
Many of the established aeroplane build
ers got their first experience in model
contests, and some Of them still try out
all new designs in working models before
they build big machine on untried
lines