The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-07-31
AVIATOR MAKES RECORD, CLIMBS
 3O,700 FEET
Roland Rohlfs Smashes the American Mark and Alp
 breaches That of Casale.
PROGRESS HALTED
 BY CHILLED MOTOR
Tries Vainly to Continue in 10O- Mile Windstorm, With
 Temperature at 25 Below.

New York, July 31-An altitude of
 30,70O feet was reached by oRland Rohlfs, chief test pilot for the Cur tiss Engineering Corporation, accord ing to his barograph. in a flight from
 Roosevelt Field yesterday afternoon.
 He started the flight at 2:33 o'clock
 and landed at 5:2S.
 The best previous American record
 was that of Major R. W. Schroeder,
 U. s. A., who attained an altitude of
 assoc feet in 8 British-built Bristol
 machine, Sept. IS, last year. The
 worlds record is claimed in behalf
 of Adjutant Casale, a Frenchman,
 who was reported last month to have
 reached height of 33,136 feet.
 AdJutant Casale's record has not been "homo1ogated," or registered as official by the air societies of the
 worldN although it may be received later. After the flight of Rohlfs ye.terday the paragraph was signed by the official witnesses and sent to the Aero Club of America to be cor rected and authenticated. It may stand as the official worlds altitude record.
 RohIfs found himself in tenn perature Of 25 degrees below zero with @ wind blowing 100 miles an hour, when he ed the top of his climb of nearly six miles. The cold kept causing trouble with his engine. He cut up the pillow of his seat and tried to use the stufhng to protect parts of the engine from the cold, but this was blown away as fast as he put it in place.
 He climbed out on his machine to cut a water pipe when he thought that cold water from the pipe was h nj In chill hut Q found it difficult to ramble about his ma chine when 1t was at a height con- siderably greater than the sum G1it of Mount Everett, and finally had to start downward without achieving the record credited to Casale. He said afterward that he believed he could have beaten Casale's record if the engine had been a little better protected against cold.
 The oxygen which the pilot breath
 ed when so high that the air was too thin to sustain life of itself. was al- most exhausted when he had finished with his desperate attempts to keep frost from invading the engine, and he had no assurance of keping life l in his body if he continued his ef- 1 forts to buck a few thousand feet higher through the Arctic blizzards | he found at that height. During part of the flight he was forced to work 1 his gasoline pump by hand. He was ] protected by heavy furlined suit, with his face completely covered by
 a hood with inset goggles.
 ! Rohlfs flew a Curtis Wasp biplane
 equipped with a 12-cylinder, 400 horse power Kirllham motor. He tried out | the climbing powers of the machine i two weeks ago in an unofficial flight i in which he reported reaching
 height of 31 ,Oo0 feet. Numerous wit
 nesses were called yesterday to make ! the flight official, and the barogTaph i was signed by Major J. E. Roessel. Major 1T. F. Miller, Lieut.. Col. W. L. 1 Moose, Jr Captain A. F. Simonin, | Colonel Archie Miller. Augustus Post, I on behalf of the Aero Club of Amer i ica; John T. Tarbox, secretary of the l Aero Club of America, and the pilot himself.
 II The barograph record will be ex-
 haustively examined by air experts
 and mathematicians, to fix the official
 figures of the height It was said that study of the record might result
 in placing the exact altitude achieved
 anywhere between 30,4OO and 31 900
 feet.
 T. Rohlfs machine weighed 1900
 pounds. It had a. wing span of g feet
 anl half an inch and was g feet over all in length It was intended for use in the war, as a two-plane machine
 gun fighting plane, but it was not ready before the arInistice was signed. Rohlfs will make another flight soon, when, with further protection
 for the engine, he hopes to ascend