Evening star., 1923-09-22

We haven't yet quite reached the
stage where We can go From the
Earth to the Moon Direct in Ninety
seven Hours Twenty Minutes" as de-
scribed in Jules Verne's fascinating
book of that title. but several Wash
ingtonians who had never before
flown in an airplane have tasted the
great delight of travel by air route
and are most enthusiastic about IT..
These gentlemen. include Joseph A.
Carey, special assistant to Secretary
of the Navy DENLY; NJ. Porforio A.
Bonet, ex-commercial attache to the
Cuban embassy here and now consul
general of Cuba to Canada. ana
Thomas H. Healy, assistant dean OF
the School of Foreign Service
Georgetown University.
The trio made their debut in air
travel Thursday in the good ship
Aeromarine, the All Metal Airway
Express, under direction of p. 9. Zim-
mermann, chief engineer in the oe-
signing and construction OF TINS n
ing boat, and with his brother,- "
Zimmerman as pilot. Mr.. Waiton, 'ne
mechanician. and q representative OF
The Star completed the party, whicn
laft the naval air station at 1852
Yesterday morning and new 10 Noi
folk, Va, arriving there at ocioch
in the afternoon.
set any speed record or show the
stunts of which airplanes and nying
boats are capable, but merely TO Dem =
onstrate the charms OF travel via the
air, and in this aim the trip was
highly successful. In fact, so great
- thar
lhe remained at Hampton roads naVal
base for a couple of days for inspec,
ton purposes and plans to then traVei
| in the plane to New York.
Distinguished Passengers.
During its stay in Washington this
Iaeromarine plane has carried about
$50 civilians from the. asronautics de-
partment on short hops and has, taken
such distinguished passengers as
Secretary Denbys Theodore Clark,
secretary to President Coolidge, and
Mrs Clark and Mai. Gen. Patrick of
the Army air service. Gen. Patrick
| and Mrs. Clark had intended going
on the trip yesterday to Norfolk, but
Mr. Clark discovered at the last mo-
ment that he could not be spared from
the White House, so they had to de-
cline.
This flying boat is made of the same
aluminium alloy as the framework OF
the ZR-1 and has in its construction
as many as 10000 rivets. Although
the ship has a maximum speed of 104
miles an hour, the average flying
speed on the trip yesterday was be-
tween 75 and so miles an hour.
The ship few for the first half OF
| the trip at an average altitude OF
! 1850 feet, always within gliding dis
tance of the water and giving a fine
| panoramic picture of the country
| below. 1t wasn't ten minutes after
naval air station before Mount Yer
non lay below the ship and soon aft.
er passing that point Mr.. thinner
mann allowed the ship to glide grace
fully to the river in order to show
how easy it was to descend II neces-
sary. Although many clouds were
piled up in the sky and a teasing
| when about to hop off, the weather
was excellent after those frst few
minutes of rain and the air was
| warm.
Descent Near Quantico.
| The next descent to the water was
made near Quantics, when the pilot
showed the enjoyable qualities OF
| long glide from good altitude over
| a point of land to the waters levei
| A fair-sized group of ioystermen and
fishermen viewed this particular ma
neuver with amusement, and interest
and waved the party on with faintly
audible cheers, and the snip sklmmeo
along above the water at g. distance
of seventy-fivs rnTses an hour. This
speed, naturally. seemed much greater
at the low altitude than when the
iperspective had>chanxed 80 completely
at higher altitude. The reason for the