Evening star., 1923-04-03

continued from First Page.)
most prominently mentioned"
He likened the flight TO the ex-
petitions OF Lewis and Clarke in
opening up the Pacific. and declared
you have opened a route to Porto
Rico and the Caribbean"
Will Get Letters of Praise.
Secretary Weeks then instructed
Gen. Patrick 10 write Individual let
ters Of praise TO these officers, in
order, the Secretary said, that they
may be attached to their records TO
let posterlty know just what they
accomplished
At IL o'clock a formation of five
de Havilands set out from the field
here to meet the Porto Rican flyers on
their journey up from Langley Field,
Va. These planes were piloted by
Lieuts. Wilkins. Talcott 2. Smith, w.
x. Burgess. Howard T. Bogart and
Earle J. Carpenter. Capt st. Clair
Street piloted Cen Patrick on this
fight and Gen. Mitchell carried Col.
Ficilet as his passenger. These planes
picked up the squadron of six Porto
Rtcan planes at Fort Washington and
escorted them to the city.
Time and Mileage.
A few minutes after landing Lieut..
Austin, with pencil and paper. figured
out the exact time and mileage is far
as possible. The flight from San An
tonic TO Porto Rico was made in
thirty-four hours and forty minutes
actual flying time. and the journey to
Washington was completed in twenty
six hours and thlrty-five minutes fly
ing time. making a total OF sixty
one hours and thirteen minutes.
According to one officer. the United
States Air Service now controls the
could land in South America from
Porto Rico. 1t was pointed out that
II an attack were attempted on the
Panama canal, now. that the air lanes
to the West Indies are possible, il
would not be with much success
Several hundred persons were at
the field and automobiles were park
ed in a line for a great distance.
Prior TO the arrival of the planes the
Army band played continuously.
After the officers had been well
coined by nearly everybody at the
field they retired to the officers club,
where a buffet luncheon was served
in their honor. Tonight they will
be the guests at a stag dinner to be
given in the Army and Navy Club.
Capt. Lanphier will remain here q
few days and prepare his official re-
ports to his chief and by the end Of
the week all of the officers will be
at their home stations.
Planes Show No Wear.
The six de Haviland planes with
their four famous liberty motors
are standing side by side on the line
appearances they have just come out
of manufacturing plant and there
is nothing about them to indicate
they had been flown at all. Each OF
the planes bears some peculiar mark
ing adopted by the pilot, such as
swallows, etc. The radiator shutters
are painted brilliant red, white and
blue and the cowling or the peri
meter of the radiator is painted a
snow white. The planes will remain
here at Boiling Field, according to
Mai George E. A. Reinberg, COM
manding officer of the field.
Air Service Enthused.
The Porto Ritan flight demonstrated
the ease with which aerial communi-
cation may be established with the in
sular possessions, according to air
service officials. Air service officers
were elated over the excellent results
obtained from evry angle.
One of the outstanding features of
the fight was the performance of
the liberty motors which propelled the
big De Havilands over the long jour
neg. Their faithful service was de-
clared to be fine tribute to the me-
chanical skill of the Army Air Service
personnel at the San Antonio air in
termediate depot. who worked un-
ceasingly to put the engines and
planes in condition for the flight.
Only one accident of any conse-
quence marred an otherwise smooth
journey. This was the wash out"
of an airplane piloted by Lieut.. Sell
Ger. In landing at Pablo Beach, Jack
sonville. Fla, he miscalculated the
height OF the tide and ran has ma
chine over the edge of the water.
causing it to overturn. The plane in
which Gen. Patrick was supposed to
accompany the flyers from Jackson
VILE to Miami, Fla. was made avail
able for Lieut.. Sellers use. The sub
stitution OF the airplane tended to
delay the fight a little. since it had
a gasoline tank of only eighty gal
Ions capacity, instead of the 135
gallons in the other plane. The
substitute plane was forced to make
several extra landings in order TO re-
plenish the fuel supply.