The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-10-17
new AERIAL FEAT
Lieutenant Vaughan Flies 400
Feet Per Second.
Navy and Army Experts Won
der What VIII Be Next.
(By the Associated Press.,

Mount Clemens, Mlcn,s Oct IL
<Aeronautical engineers and army and
navy experts at Selfridge field were
specializing today as to what might ne
the next unheard of aerial feat. They
came here a week ago prepared for
surprises but none had expected to see
a human being plunge thru space at
nearly 400 feet a second, nor had
they expected to see an airplane flown
virtually without the aid of wings.
This was the performance yesterday
of Lieut.. R. L. Maughan of the army,
who, on Saturday won the Pulitzer
aero classic. Flying the Curtiss/ army
biplane with which he was victorious
Saturday Lieutenant Maughan yes
terday travelled one kilometer at the
rate Of 248.5 miles an hour, surpass-
ing by more than 80 miles the pre-
vious official record, and making the
distance % miles an hour faster than
any unrecognized mark previously re-
corded.
The record breaking flight was part
of the government tests of a score of
new type planes built for the ma
tiona1 air races. Lieut.. Maughan's
feat it was said, would virtually de-
eide the type of plane the army would
select to develop as the standard for
the pursuit group. The pilots great
speed was even surpassed in the opin-
ion of some of the engineers, by his
flight without wings"
Fly Upside Down.
During the Pulitzer race Lieut..
Maughan's pylol. work startled many
of the pilots on the field. At more
than 200 miles an hour he would tilt
his machine on one side for a con-
siderable distance, then complete the
12Q degree turn upside down. This
caused speculation as to the distance q
machine might be flown on its side, a
position in which the planes had little
y, =
air. Lieut.. Vaughan believed this art
might be developed and demonstrated
by flight across Selfridge field, a dis
lance of about a mile, that under GER
tain conditions plane might be flown
in that position for a much greater
distance than usually is required in
making turns.
1t appeared that the speed of the
powerful motor was sufficient to pull
the machine thru the air and at the
same time hold it aloft. The feat
probably will have an important
said.
So surprised were the pilots and
aero officials. who witnessed Maug-
hans flights, that doubling
Thomases" appeared and even Brig.
Gen William Mitchell assistant head
of the army air service, wanted to
satisfy himself that the performance
was not aided by some unobserved
feature or design General Mitchell
took the speedy craft into the air and
returned with the announcement that
no trick flying" had figured in the
flights which were electrically timed.
Built by Curtiss.
The plane, built by the Curtiss cor
poration, mounts a 400 horsepower
Curtiss engine and is similar in de-
sign to the machines that finished in
the first four places in the Pulitzer
trophy race.
The performance convinced service
observers, they declared, that devel-
opment of aircraft was still far from
its peak and that there was virtcSlly
no limit to the speed that might be
attained. The government tests are
to be continued for several DAYS