Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-25

tics and succeeded in again putting
out the fire.
| But the resultant vibration was so
great that something else in the en-
CINE mounting evidently carried away
and what was left of the engine
seemed to sag and sway in most dis
| turbing fashion. With the engine
gone, the plane would have been so
badly unbalanced that it would have
undoubtedly spun down tail first.
| Everything went we'll until in the
vicinity of $4,000 to 10000 feet fire
broke out again in the engine section
At this time it was apparent that no
further diving could be INDUCED in
L side-slipped as violently as possible
and kept the fire away from the plane
| until it had apparently burned itself
out. In the Side-slip | was losing al
titude rapidly and hoped to he able
to get the plane down to earth without
abandoning it to it's own devices.
After losing several thousand feet.
I again Strengthened out with the in.
tention of making some distance to-
ward the field. In fighting the fires,
| had had to ignore my position en-
tlrely and had succeeded in getting
some distance from my landing place.
| Immediately after Strengthening out
fire again broke out, with the great
est violence which it had shown l1p to
that time. 1t was evident that COM
bustion of hot lubricating oil spilled
| from the damaged engine was the
source of the fire.
Prepares to Jump.
still had some 10000 feet altitude
to lose. | tried in vain to blow the
fire out or to keep it clear of the
upper wing by de-slipping. At that
time I definitely decided that it would
be impossible to bring the plane safely
to earth and loosening my safety belt,
prepared to jump.
1t occurred to me, however, that
the altimeter had indicated an alti-
tude attained, the record of which 1
would like to bring back. AS the fire
was confined to the engine section.
and as there was no great urgency of
leaving the plane at that instant. I
decided to try other means of blowing
out the fire even at the expense of
loosing the engine, and the tail spin
which was certain to follow.
l therefore continued to side-slip
and allowed the nose to drop, chang
ing the side.sip from a slip to dive.
Using the speed so gained | was able
10 pun the nose or the plane up to
practically vertical position, from
which the plane slid downward tail
first
Nothing but the excellent flying
characteristics of the Wright
Apache" and the perfect control at
all attitudes Of flight and at all speeds
made it possible to do this without
snap-stall, the result of which would
have certainly thrown the engine out
With the plane travelling backward
and away from the engine, the flames
were blown away from all parts OF
the structure. At the same time, this
series of maneuvcrs resulted in an
extremely rapid loss of altitude. AT
the end the fire was out. perhaps due
to the maneuvers, and perhaps to the
exhaustion of the combustible ma
tcrial. l was also fortunate in find
ing myself very near the landing
field. so that / was able to effect a
normal landing in small patch of
cultivated ground at the edge of the
regular landing area.
Cylinder Heads Missing.
Upon inspection of the plane, inn
mediately after landing, 1 was forced
to conclude that there had been some
interruption in the lubricating oil sup
p!etely missing, as were the pistOns
and connecting rods from those cylin- |
ders. The remaining two cylinder
heads were badly cracked and the pis
tons and rods missing.