Evening star., 1924-07-12

RECORD
Anacostia Officers in Air IS
Hours and is Minutes Be-
fore Fog HaIts Effort. ,
TRY FOR 2O-HOUR MARK
Lieuts. Wead and Price, Also Hold
ers of Former Title, Will Seek
to Attain Goal Later.
TRY FOR 2O-HOUR MARK

Circling high In mid-air above the
reaches of the Potomac River below
Washington, LieutS. F. W. Wead and
John d. Price of the Naval Air Sta
tion at Anacostia broke their own
worlds record for duration of flight
in a Seaplane in the early hours of
today, remaining in the air for fifteen
hours and sixteen minutes. They were
forced down four miles above Alex
andria at 6.45 this morning, after
cruising for many minutes in an i'm
penetrable fog, above which they
could not rise and which failed to
recede with the rising of the sun.
Taking off yesterday afternoon at
3.29 in a CS-2, combination scouting
and bombing plane, and one of the
newest types of seaplanes in the pos
session of the Navy, Lieuts. Wead
and Price hoped to break their own
worlds record, set on June %, when
they remained aloft thirteen hours
and twenty minutes.
When they were forced to light on
the Potomac below Alexandria this
morning they had broken their own
world record, but were still more
than four hours short of the expected
twenty-hour fight-their goal-and
likewise that of an Army ship which
took off from Langley Field, Hamp-
ton Roads, Va, yesterday in a sim
liar attempt to break the world sea-
plane duration of flight record
Will Try Again.
Exhausted by their constant Wig
ilance in trying to find their way
through the impenetrable blanket of
fog which overspread the river where
it widens below Alexandria, the two
naval officers retired as soon as they
got back to the naval air station.
They will make another attempt to
remain In the air twenty hours, it
was announced. Conditions were not
at all favorable for a duration fight
above the Potomac River last night.
the fiers said. declaring that never
in all their experience had they ex-
perienced such "bun1py" air.
Nevertheless they stayed I'D, cir
cling over Hams Point and back down
the river to Madison Point hour after
hour, their course outlined only by
blazing beacons of light at the air
station and at the other end of the
ffty-kilometer course. Although the
instruments on the plane had not
been unsealed today, there was no
doubt they had shattered the pre-
vious world record and had set
mark far beyond their record of three
weeks ago.
The CS-2 is propelled by twelve
cylinder T-3 Wright engine, one of
the newest and most powerful en-
gines developed for seaplanes. The
plane is not nearly as fast as some of
the "wasps' of the Army, but can
maintain a steady flying speed of
more than seventy miles an hour.
Travel LOSS Miles.
The fifty-kilometer course from
Hams Point to Madison Point meas
ures approximately thirty-one Ameri-
can miles. The plane on its record
fight flew about 1,035 miles at->an
average speed in excess of seventy
miles an hour. When the ship left
the naval air station yesterday after
noon she was loaded with 700 gallons
of gasoline, and large supply Of
oil. The test revealed no mechanical
defects in the plane, officers of the
station said, and she could have re-
mained aloft much longer had it not
been for the fog.
The CS-2 is a new type Of Navy
seaplane, only few Of this type be-
ing in possession of the Navy. The
tests are not being conducted purely
as attempts to set worlds record,
but in order to determine the flying
range of the ship, and it's availability
for scouting and bombing purposes.