The sun., 1918-10-27
LIBERTY SEES
LIBERTY MOTORS
YTORECORD
Sergt. COombs Makes 139
Mile an Hour Dash
Around Statue.
PAST BECOMES JOG TROT
Army Airmen at Belmont
Make Spectators Cheer,
Gasp and Wonder.

Away back on an almost forgotten
Sunday near the dawn OF aviaton-eisht
years ago this month. in fact--Johnny
Moissant. Claude Grahame-White and
Count de Lesseps raced from Belmont
Park to the Statue OF Liberty and back
for $4,000, given BY Thomas F. Ryan.
Wise young men shook their heads
and doubted IL they would ever live to
zee anybody cleave the air faster than
did Moissant on that prodigious after
noon. In his Bleriot he travelled the
thirty-six miles in "a minutes ISIS sec
onds--at the rate of sixty-two miles an
hour. Although he was eventually dis
qualified and the money awarded to
Grahame-white, Moissants time was ac-
tually the lowest
Yesterday the leaves were falling
again and Belmont Park was. again the
scene OF an aviation meet-a far greater
one than the event of 1910. for in
stead of professionals competing for cash
the exhibitors and contestants were Of
ficsrs OF the United States Army, gath
cred from six flying fields OF Long ISL
and. showing the groundlings what they
have learned and can do before they take
wing for France.
Once more the climax was a Statue OF
Liberty race. From the same spot. over
the same course. over Long Island and
Brooklyn and the harbor, seven Ameri-
can pilots in seven American made BIZ
planes driven by seven Liberty motors
few in repetition Of the classic of eight
years ago.
When Moissant and GrahameW White
and de Lesseps raced they started at
intervals and only the stop watch could
stetermine the winner. To have raced
abreast in that period would have been
folly. because OF the danger Of fouling
in the air. But yesterday the seven
savagely roaring contenders took the
air side by side from the park enclos-
ure in front OF the grand stand. and
side by eide they challenged one an
other Gar toward the statue. and even
when two drew ahead and the 1--WE
others split into two groups the seven
were so close together that single.
infants size cloud would have blanketed
them all. And they finished-well. no.
where. in any kind OF competition, has
there been seen such finish as thrilled
$4,000 persons In Belmont Park to the
point of heart failure.
Many Thrills mt Finish.
They suddenly cleaned against the
southwestern sky. those two leading
planes So scantly were they separated
that the shouting spectators thought
there was only one. away ahead of tho
Test. Then as they shot over the park
fence and screamed into the home
stretch OF the old race track the fact
that there were two Of them was sud-
denly apparent. Two OF them. and the
nose Of the second was all but touching
the tail OF the first. Their Liberty mo-
tors and propellers beat out a song only
surpassed by the tri-motored Caproni
which had ambled amiably over the field
an hour or two before.
From their exhausts beiched darl
smoke which streamed behind them like
the trail OF an ocean liner. They were
rot more than 100 feet above the track
Their speed was flendish. Persons OF
the ground wondered how an av!ato,
flying at such speed could do more thar
cover In his pit and pray. Yet the pilo
Of the leading biplane was waving hi
hand at the grand stand folk as h,
hurtled past, waved and actually
grinned, as everybody could see. ant
then. past the finish mark. zoomed vi
and up until he could descend in gentl
spirals to the field.
Crazy flying lads from Hazlehurs
Field seized him and pushed his google,
back over his mouse colored helmet an,
traipsed him across the track and up IL
front OF the grand stand. where equal!
crazy members of ordinary. humdrum
land crawling society fought each othe
10 get a close up of the winner, who KEEP
on grinn.ng.
And why shouldn't he grin? Not
these points: First. the young man wa
Sergeant Coombs of San Francisco,
tester at Hazlehurst field, and II yo,
ptease, the only non-commissioned offi
yer in a race where ALI the others ha,
comml ssionS. Second, his was the whit
arrow ship" from Hazlehurst Field. tn
only one from that field. where ever,
mothers son. forgetting his mother
counsel. had gone and bet his foollsl
head off on this same Sergeant Coombs
and consequently had won a horrible 10
OF good money (thIs is all strictly sc
creD from their comrades OF the Unitet
States Army who had backed the pilot
of their own training camps against Ser
geant Coombs and the lead coIored ma
chine with the great white arrow on II
tanks.
Motor Record Attained.
And thirdly 1--WE get to the really i'm
portant part now every airplane in thl
race had gone faster than any Libert,
motor had eyer driven n machine be
fore, provided that the Government
hasn't record or two up Its sleeve tina
has not been revealed The normal speec
OF the Liberty has been rated at IL;
miles an hour. Everybody knows tina
Il is not used in the fast fighting plane,
because 1t is too slow and heavy fo
work for which It was not intended
Remember that Molssants time for IN,
thirty-six mile Statue OF Liberty cours,
was - minutes 38.s seconds-a it'll,
better than sixty-two miles an hour
Sergeant Coombs's time over the SAM
route was Is minutes 80 seconds, a lIttl
better than 1879 miles an hour. Ant
whereas In the contest OF eight years aR,
Grahame White In his Farman was al
most minute behind Johnny Moissant
ana De Lesseps In his Antoinette wa
six minutes behind Grahame White. tn
last plane OF the seven that boiled owe
The course yesterday was not more tina,
twenty seconds behind the trumphan
Eergeant Coombs.
II was a splendid visual demonstration
for those with memories o! the progress
~ aviation in eight years, as it wn
tratifying' proof for everybody that al
lhough America may not have built Il
many planes and motors as Il ought [
rave done up to this time, those IL ha
tu!lt are hummers
All HayiIand Machines.
All the seven machines which carrie