The New York herald., 1921-02-03
ROUND THE WORLD
'ARPLANE DERBY
IS DECLARED OFF
Aero Club of America De-
cides Contest Is Not Feas-
ible at This Time.
BIG COST A HANDICAP
Machines of To-day Not
Equal to Such an AM
bilious PrOJecl, Bellel.
SHORT RACES PROMISED
Difficulty in Raising S2,OOO.-
900 for Prizes Factor~in
Decision.
SHORT RACES PROMISED

The airplane race around the world
with a prize of 81 100000 for the WIN
ner. and prizes totalling s2,oo0,Ooo more
for other contestants. has been aoan-
doned. Maurice Cleary, managing direc-
tor of the Aero Club of America. an
nounced yesterday.
Several years ago officials OF the
Aero Club of America, which had not
then been amalgamated with the Aineri-
can Flying Club and its hundreds Oh ac
tive flying men. conceived the idea OIL
running an aerial derby around the
world. special committee was named
to consider the matter, and commis,
sion later was created to tour the "oriu
and look over the situation Commodore
Louis ID. Beaumont headed this commis-
sion. which made tour Of the glope
A set OF rules and regulations was
drawn up for the event but the Inter
national Aeronautic Federation, Oh
which the Aero Club of America was
the representative in this country, IN
its meeting last year at Geneva ala not
approve of these and instructed the
Aero Club or France TO formulate rules.
This was done and the regulations were
forwarded to this country for approvai
by the Aero Club here.
Meanwhile, after some dissension. the
Aero Club OF America, the older ana
less active flying organization in the
United States, and the American Flying
Club an organization of American Army
and Navy pilots. decided 20 amalgamate
This was done. and new board OF gov
ernors and a new contest commlttee
came into being. The contest committee
Of the new organization consisted solely
Of ayiators men who have flown many
a. 1e althnf1uh a
not winged around the world. The con-
test committee considered the case, and
then considered il again. and then de-
cided unanimously to lay the whole race
OH the table
Race for the Future.
"At the present time it is not pos
sjble to hold such a race said Mr..
Clearyy who was formerly a Captain in
the Air Service. ''In the first place the
men on the contest committee. who are
all practical fliers, do not consider
race around the world at the present
stage of the game aeronautically feas-
ible. There are few improvements TO
be made in planes before men can hop
off on that kind of an undertaking. Five
or zen years from now. however. il will
rot only be possible but II will have
been done.
"The second reason for laying the
whole project on the table was the mat
te, of money II would take at least
half million dollars for preparation for
such race Controls must be organ
lied in every part OF the world TO check
I'D on the contestants. landing fields
must be located and possibly made
smooth. huge gasolene supplies must be
made ready and various other matters
attended to. In addition to that the
millions for prizes must be raised. This.
AT the present time. would be an almost
impossible task. for the bulk Of the
membership OF the club consists of young
pilots who are BY no means wealthy.
WIN Promote other Contests.
THE Aero Club has abandoned the
idea OF holding such a race because 1t
is not practical, but the project is still
the clubs own and may be taken up
again when il is a possibility. ] wish
to state emphatically that the derby
rlans belong TO the club and no other
organizations or persons are authorized
to use the clubs name or the names OF
it's governors in promoting race around
the world and thereby promoting their
own organizations.
But although we do not plan to fly
around the world Immediately. the club
members are working hard to promote
aviation i'm this country in every way
possible. including the holding of such
races as the recent Pulitzer trophy con-
test at Mineoia. We want to get the
people of this country interested In
flying. but we don't desire to DO this by
promoting visionary contests like around
the world flights