Evening star., 1923-08-29
SAN DIEGO FLYERS
BREAK 4 RECORDS
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
| SAN DIEGO, Calf. August 29-
| Beyond the statistical achievements
| of Capt. Lowell II. Smith. and Lieut.
John z. Richter. Army aviators. who
) had broke several worlds records for
| endurance and distance and speed
when they landed early last might
after cruising above the city contin-
uously for thirtyseven hours and "a
quarter, a new leaf hutters from the
| scroll in the sky on which the me
chanicaI romance of aviation is be
| ing written.
The new chapter. while less spec
| tacular. has implicat tions perhaps
| more momcntouS. For Capt. Smith
and Lieut.. Richter took on in mid-ai
! fuel for their DeHayiland plane no
less than fifteen times. They had ac-
complished the feat before, but only
as a daring experiment. This time
| they proved il practicable. durable.
/ comparatively easy. as schemes of the
air go. Thus they established that
| planes need not carry great amounts
of fuel and food to go vast distance
| without stopping. but may fiy on in
| definitely to be met at certain air
lanes by refueling and reprovisioning
planes.
/ Summary Of Flight.
The two airmen took off at 5:O2:1 /
| am. Monday. They landed as a fog
gathered, at 6:19:32 pm. yesterday.
! The summary of their flight as rec
| orded officially at the air field shows:
| World records:
/ Duration record. 81 hours 10 minutes
IL As seconds. or l hour and 10 min
utes longer than the record OF Kelly
and MacReady.
| Total distance flown. $500 kilo-
meters, or 3.293.26 miles. at an aver
/ age speed of $3.50 miles an hour The
record of Kelly and MacReady was
2.541 miles.
| World speed records were broken
+! for $500 to 1000 kilometers.
The following new world speed rec
| ords were established:
| $500 kilometers-Time, 81 hours, So
! minutes 90 seconds; $3.50 miles an
| hour.
5000 ADMINISTRATORS 80 hours. 4
minutes 2S seconds; SS.75 miles an
hour.
| Record Of Filters
Capt. Smith was born in Santa Bar
! bara, Calf, and during the recent
war was assistant officer in charge
OF training at Kelly Field. Tex. Later
| bombing group in England. In Octo-
Der. 1919. he won the San Francis
co-New York and return air race, with
| "a hours elapsed flying time.
Lieut. 6lcnteT, native OF virginia
received his air training in British
| and French military schools early in
| the war, and was one of the first Amer
| lean flyers sent to the war zone. He
I served In the Meuse and Argonne Of
| fensives as combat pilot with the 22d
and 139th Pursuit Squadrons of the I'd
Army pursuit group.
On June %, hoping to remain aloft
four days and planning to stay up
until their engine burned out, they
r1x~r r-T1I fnr Ia
| proved to be almost a twenty-four-
hour flight
On that day eleven contacts were
made with the supply plane.
The flyers kept up communications
with the ground by dropping notes
Tagged with markers, when they
Ipassed over the landing field.
| Sought Duration Marks.
No effort was made to attain speed
in either of these earlier attempts
the two flyers seeking marks for
duration rather than speed. How
iof the plane. the average speed for
the second attempt reached S4.73 miles
an hour. This speed caused two
trecords to fall to Smith and Richter
those for $500 and 5000 kilometers.
The marks were 1S hours IL
minutes 1-5 seconds for the $500
kilometer distance, as against a
,record of 81 hours 81 minutes sec
londs; and % hours minutes Al 81
lseconds for the 5000 kilometers, as
lagainSt the old mark of 20 hours |
minute 80 seconds. Both records
were held by Lieuts. Oakley Kelly
land John A. MacReady.
Early the morning of June 29 fog
developed, causing the flyers to shift
from the official course to a smaller
lone. and a little later fuel line
iclogged. Lieuts. Virgil Hines and
Frank Seifert. manning the supply
lplane, made several efforts to fuel
the record seeking flyers, and about
\ fifteen gallons of gasoline was de-
ilivered. The planes were forced to
Ipull apart because of the danger OF
a collision in the fog.
Smith and Richter had further
ltrouble and finally landed in the mud
tflats off North Island. the plane turn
ing over. Richter suffered some slight
burns from the gasoline which, be-
came ignited, and Smith escaped un-
injured.