Evening star., 1922-09-24
Eleuen Select Flyers Navy
Team, u, Detroit Air Derby
II Specially Built or. Reconstructed
Racing Planes Groomed for Curtiss
Marine and Pulitzer Trophies.

war. He was a leader OF a squadron
of bombing planes which took part
In the bombing Of the ex-German
Lieut.. A. ". Gorton and Lieut..
David Rittenhouse were in service
in the French ambulance corps prior
to the entry of the United States
into the war. but enlisted In the
when war was declared. Both have
been attached to the Pacific fleet air
Lieut.. Rittenhouse will pilot one of
the Booth racers IN the Pulitzer
event. while Lieut.. 0orton will APP
plane.
Lieut.. Rutledge Irvine and Lieut..
W. K. Patterson complete the team
Of Navy fiiers. The former was one
Of the pilots who made an endurance
test of twenty hours 81, In the F,S-L al,
brought out. and later was a men,
ber of the squadrons which made
the San Dicgo-Panama flight with
the Pacific feet in the winter Of
1920-2l. Lieut.. Patterson saw scrv-
ice with naval aviation units In
war and has been attached to the
Atlantic feet air forces.
Curtiss Navy Racer. .=,
Numerous Navy entries in the. two
races will be watched with consider
able interest, among them the Curtiss
Navy racer, which will be piloIed y
Lieut.. Brow. This type of bipiane
is we'll known, since one of. them,
piloted by Bert Acosta. won the race
for the Pulitzer trophy at Omaha
last year, making speed of 1855
miles per hour-the worlds record
for a closed course. The same plane
tried over y straightaway has made
1878 miles per hour. which, is an
American speed record. If not q
worlds record. for straight flight.
The CIR type was designed by the
Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Corpo-
ration In cooperation with the Navy
Department. and built by that cor
poration in an effort to produce an
airplane with the maximum aero
dynamic refinement. The CIR planes
ses esSiHpsa with cu,ss 1ssn
still a relatively new engine devel-
oped by the Curtiss company for the
Navy Department, but not yet In gen.
eral service use. The information
obtained by testing this eigine IN
races is being applied in the. form OF
before such engines are adopted for
general service. The CIR machine.
as the present title holder, Is, of
course, the favorite, based on past
performance. 1t is the first airplane
in this country to have attained
speeds above 100 miles and 1t is due
largely to the special wing construc-
tion adopted that no difficulties were
experienced. Abroad in connection
with racing there has been a success
sion Of wing failures in the air.
largely due to fabric tearing loose
under the action of terrific pressures
generated at these speeds. However.
10 MI hoS &c xuvs~
with plywood. to which the fabric
covering is glued and .ironed in place.
SO that there Is no possibility of 1t
working loose.
Another speedster Of outstanding
interest is the model 1877 tractor tri-
plane, to be flown by Lieut.. L. H.
sanderson. I: S. NJ: c. The triplane
built in 1918 by the Curtiss Aero
plane and Motor Corporation as a
two-seater combat plane of maxi
mum performance. Had the war con-
tinued, it is likely that this type
would have been put into production
was. the sample plane made on trials
high speed of 1852 miles an hour,
which was then worlds record for
any type of airplane and Is still be-
lieved a worlds record for a two
scatter fighting machine. For the
purpose Of the Curtiss marine trophy
| race. two of these airplanes which
and fitted with pontoons to convert
them to seaplanes. They are fitted
with the Curtiss CC-12, l00.horse-
power-a light 12-cylinder engine
especially designed for this airplane.
These triplanes are believed to be the
of considerable technical interest on
this account