Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-04-18
BOTH CONTESTANTS READY
FOR BIG AIR RACE ACROSS
ATLANTIC FOR BIG PURSE
By W. p. BeazeIl spe cial Correspondence

st. Johns, N. r., April 17.-While
weather conditions at sea were too
unsettled today TO permit Harry G.
Hawker, Australian airman, or Cap
tain Frederick p. Raynham, his Brit
islt rival. to start their trans Atlantic
race conditions here were favorable
enough to allow Raynham to make a
test flight in his biplane. Hawker al
ready has made his final trial trip and
tonight both machines are resting in
their hangers, ready to take the air
at the first signs of clearing.
Raynham observed on the flight
great fog banks off the coast. rising
from floating ice and extending far
out into the Atlantic.
1nauspicious reports were received
from weather men who announced
that "cyclonic belts" over the Atlantic
made start inadvisable.
The situation becomes all the more
interesting because Hawker and
Raynham have been close friends for
long time and throughout the war
devoted themselves to exactly the
same work, the testing of planes for
battle service and the front. The Sop
with planes shared with the Bristol
type the distinction of being the most
used in France. The Martinsyde
planes were similarly, though not so
extensively. used and Raynham and
Hawker had as much In common pro
fessionally as personally. They met
today in the most cordial way. but
neither means to sacrifice anything to
the others advantage.
HaWker is flVinp for q bnpr. of
$4,000, The entire amount of the
prize offered by the Daily Mail will
be divided among the Sopwith Avia-
ton company. the Rolls Royce COM
pany and the others whose equipment
is used
1t is now possible to tell some of the
details of the plane in which Hawker
will make the "big hop" Its most
striking feature is a device by which
the entire under carriage il to he
dropped when he has got we'll out to
sea. The dropping of this structure,
light as 1t is in actual weight and Of
fering slight head resistance to the
air, will add ten miles an hour to the
speed OF the ship This has been dem
onstrated by exhaustive tests.
The maintained speed of the plane
is 100 miles an hour in theoretical
flight. This speed must be kent UP
hour after hour in actual flight. How
ever, there are times when less than
100 miles NAV be obtained, and times
when the plane will make 11S miles.
During the final test at Brooklands il
achieved an average of ITO miles for
nine hours and fifteen minutes.
Smashes on Landing
The extraordinary device, used for
the getaway and then dropped at sea,
requires the unusual feat of landing
without an under carriage. That
means that the machine must be de-
liberately wrecked at the end of the
flight. There are dangers that this
will entail death--or injury of one or
both men-but this risk is q matter
of indifference to Hawker and Grieve
Hawker has made such landings
but had not practiced them before the
construction of the transatlantic
plane had been completed in the fac
tory of the Sopwith company Prac-
tically duplicate machine was built.
1t carried the same weight of engine
and lubricants, and offered the same
kind of resistance. He went lIp in it
dropped the under carriage, flew with
out 1t for time, and then landed in
deliberate crash. His propeller wa
broken and the under wing was pret-
" badly smashed. The amount of
damage done, however. was surpris-
ingly small and it is said by men who
saw the landing that lavman might
have been at loss to see what the
damage was
When Hawker had demonstrated
the feasibility of the device. work
went ahead on the actual trans-At-
lantic ship.
Great professional and technical in
terest is felt in this scheme, and there
will be few features of the flight ac-
counted of more 'mportaI ce among
engineers OF successful flights. II will
establish the dependatility of such