The sun., 1919-09-28
50 FLIERS ENTERED
IN 5,4O2 MILE RACE
New York to San Francisco
and Back Contest Begins
October 8.
81 STOPS ON THE ROUTE
Fifty-seven to Start From
Mineola and 23 From the
Golden Gate.

At least eighty airplanes win start
from New York and San Francisco on
the morning q, October In the great
cross continent ind-return race in which
amy fiiers will blaze an aerial trail
across the United States as a few years
ago pioneer automobiles cut their way.
Spectacular as the race is, there Ia
very sober and practical idea back of
t. for in a few years a transcontinental
path through the sky will be needed for
commercial and pleasure voyagera
As Lieut.-Col. II. M. Hickam Of the
Army Air Service announced yesterday,
the feeling of the Air Service is that the
people are entitled to all the benefits of
the knowledge and experience of the
service that can be turned to CONNER
'cIal advantage. This race. with the
consequent quickentng of interest in aero
nautical matters throughout the coun-
try, and the establishment OF the one
necessity of commercial aviation, land
ing fields, will cut down many OF the
difficulties in the path Of aerial traffic
and aid the United States to Jeep her
place among the other nations in aero
nautical progress.
Details and rules of the race were
made yesterday by the American Flying
Club which, with the army officials, IL
to manage the race.
Up to the present time 1t Is known
that at least f1fty-seven army fiiers will
start from Mineola, while twerty-three
will take off at San Francisco. The
rules are much the same as those In the
highly successful New York-Toronto
race. Each pilot must stop for at least
thirty minutes at each of the following
control stations: Binghamton, Roches-
D,e ell IN
Rock Island. Des Moines. Omaha. st.
Paul, North Platte, Sidney, Cheyenne,
wolcott, Green River, Salt Lake City.
Salduro, Battle Mountain, Reno and
Sacramento. Pilots from the Pacific
side will use the same stations.
Longest Flight $50 Miles.
The longest hop between stations IL
the gap of $50 miles between Cleveland
and Bryan. The other stations are as
evenly space as possible over the 2,700
mile route. The route is practically
that selected by Capt. Roy N Francis.
Eighteen prizes are to be given by
the American Flying Club. AS machines
Of many different types and sizes are
entered, including a number of British
and French planes, the winners prob
ably will be the speediest planes for
this type of work, although the skill,
daring and endurance of the aviators
themselves will play q very large part
in their finishing order. The prizes are
divided among three classes of perform
ance. These are;
/. Time competition. First place to
be awarded to the pilot crossing the
continent in the shortest time, ire
spective of stops and actual flying time.
The machine that makes the flight firS
gets the first prize in this class.
O. Speed contest In this there will
be as many classes as there are types
Of machines First, second and third
will be awarded the pilots having the
shortest flying time. Rules of the Amer
lean Flying Club will be followed.
3. Handicap Competition. This will be
based on actual flying time, but each
class (type of machine) will be given a
handicap percentage based upon its re-
ported speed as computed by the techni-
cal section In their official tests. Here
also the rules of the American Flying
Club as used in the New York-Toronto
contest will be followed.
Concerning the value OF the race the
statement of the American Flying Club
says
The Army Air Service. under the or
ders of Gen. Menoher. has arranged this
race as the greatest reliability test OF
modern machines ever made, DATA COM
piled from the various machines, the
pilots of which will keep log books. is
expected to be of great value. As practi-
cally every type of machine now in the
possession OF the army will be flown by
the best and most experienced pilots, 1t
is probable that the long looked for Ideal
machine may. be evolved as the result
OF the test.
Separation From Army Desired.
Practically every pilot entered in the
race is an advocate OF the separate
air service department. All are men,
bers of the American Flying Club at
which a poll was taken of Its 1.100
members last week on the question Of
whether or not there should be a
separate government devoted to the air
service. This poll showed that 9s per
cent Of the practical fiiers were in
favor of separate service. As 80 per
cent Of the club membership is COM
posed Of men who are actual pilots and