Evening star., 1924-10-03
BY FREDERICK n. NEELY,
staff Core reSp0ndeDt of The Star

WILBUR WRIGHT FIELD, FAIR
FIELD. Ohio, October 3-Washing-
tons entrans in the Liberty engine
builders airplane race the first major
event of the three day airplane meet
which opened here yesterday, man
aged TO run away with all the glory
and attention from thousands of avi-
alton hungry Daytonians and Ohioans
as we'll as others from remote sec
tions. Ten Army piolts spun De Havi-
lands around the 15-mile- square
course for total of $50 miles.
Lieut.. ID. q. Duke of the office of
the chief of Air Service, Washington
captured the prize of the day--s1 900
in cash and the Liberty engine build :
erS trophy. Duke has been shut up
in the chiefs office for many months
working at desk and getting in very
little flying time, and his victory was
acclaimed by all who knew or knew
of him as a deserving reward. Duke
/ flew the entire race at an average
of 1899 miles per hour, which is
pretty slow for De Haviland as
compared with the figures made at st.
| Louis last year by the same type of
ship. Lieut.. Howard X. Ramey of
Boiling Field flew a De Haviland at
1877 miles per hour for second place
! last year. but his starting time was
considered from the air, while yes
terday's race was flown from a stand
ing start.
Surprise Entrants.
Second to Lieut.. Duke was Lieut..
y. +. Simonin, short, fat, red head
ed fellow, who commands at
MoundsvilIe, w. Va, who has been
buried in valley between the
mountains for so long that the recent
additions to the Air Service didn't
however, ran a close race. the latter
finishing with an average of Us miles
for the course. But it's an inter-
esting story how these two planes,
which were the last to get into the
air. beat the others SO badly. 1t
follows:
The 10 entrants were divided into
! five pairs OF two each. The first to
get into the air We're Lieut.. Charles
William Steinmetz, adjutant of Boil
ing Field, and Lieut.. Edwin 3. Bob
zieu of Chanute Field; Rantoul. Ill
! They were followed by Lieut.. r j.
Brown, jr. commanding officer of the
Boston air port and until recently
chairman of the world flight commit
tee. under whose name have appeared
many semi-official stories of the
flight in The starr. and Lieut. l.. V.
Beau. jr., Boiling Field; next came
Lieut. ]. +. Haddon. Brooks Field,
Tex, and Lieut.. Il. d. Knapp, Mont
gomery, Ala; then Lieut.. c. A. Cover
of the field here, and Maj. c. Il.
Tinker of Fort Riley, Kans. Duke and
Red Simonin brought up the rear.
The flyers rounded the home pylon
and soon disappeared around the
course with Steinmetz leading the
way. apparently. Smoke, which had
blown from the field after it had
been deposited by II Martin bomber
in the form of screen, is supposed
to have obliterated the pylonS and
the planes kept on flying with the
result that all except Duke and
Simonin were more or less lost. After
A few minutes wait, two planes ap-
peared on the horizon and as they
rounded the home pylon they were
seen to bear numbers Al and is-the
last planes to start and the first to
get back to the field.
slow Speed Records.
Where were the others? Something
must be wrong. They must nave
cut the course in half. and similar
exclamations rose in the grandStand.
Well, after while in came stem
metz and his followers and they reg
istered speed for the 80 miles just
completed, which in some instances
was almost slower than the landing
speed of the plane-plainly signifying
that they had become lost and were
looking over the beautiful country
side surrounding this field. Duke
registered speed of 1856 miles per
hour for the first lap and Simonin
1172 - slow. but consideration is
given that they got off from a stand
still and had to fly about half a mile
before turning the pylon.
Maj. Tinker's first lap was So miles
per hour, while Vic Beau of Boil
ing was second lowest, with 67.3
miles. Duke and Simonin continued
to increase their average, however,
while the other planes, laboring un
der such a handicap, fought hard to
come out with a fair-sized number.
Lieut. Cover squeezed into third
place with 124.13 Lieut.. r. d. Knapp,
who disqualified on the second lap
for an alleged infraction of rules by