Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-27
A Week in the Air.

A Week in the Air.
Two exuberant Texans are receiving
the congratulations of an amazed
America today. Yesterday afternoon
they brought their airplane, Fort
Worth to the ground for the first time
in more than a week, and entered the
names of Robbins and Kelly into the
book of fame for aviation achievement.
Before the flight started few people had
ever heard of the two pilots. Nor did
any one take seriously their attempt to
break the record for sustained fight OF
the giant Army plane Question Mark.
which, backed by all the resources OF
the Government and ridden by a picked
crew Of flyers. SCARED over California for
six days. Robbins and Kelly had had
little experience in the air. One OF
them had taught himself" and the
other was a transformed railroad me-
chanic. Their ship was an old one.
The single motor had more than five
hundred hours to its credit. Yet for
seven days. four hours and thirty-two
minutes the Fort Worth rode through
the skies, staying aloft twenty-one
hours more than the Question Mark
and covering approximately ten thou
sand miles at sixty miles an hour, with
a total of seventeen refueling contacts.
And so Robbins and Kelly now have the
UNIQUE distinction of remaining in the
air longer than any other human be-
ings and of SCATTERING every record for
sinele-motored, dual-motored and tri-
motored planes and lighter-than-air
machines.
How much more satisfying and val
liable Is such a record compared to the
attempts, whether successful or not, to
cross the ocean in land planes! Science
has direct interest in the mark set up
by the two Texans. Science can learn
little from transatlantic fight. Kelly
and Robbins were forced to descend be-
cause their propeller had been nicked
by hail. This. in itself. should be an
important lesson to the manufacturers
Of propellers. The Question Mark came
down because the rocker arms on the
valves wore out. Profting by this ex-
perience. Robbins and Kelly ingeniously
fashioned 'cat walk" probably the
first Of its kind, around their single
motor so that the valves could be prop
erly creased. When they landed the
engine was humming as. sweetly as 1t
was when they scared aloft and is good
for many more hours Of flying.
So the epochal flight of the Fort
Worth has taught valuable lessons. be-
sides being the kind of test that in
spires confidence In aviation. 1t showed
that refueling ships In the air Is emf
nently practical, even without the elab-
crate equipment used by the Army with
the Question Mark. Only five gallons
of the seventeen hundred or more were
spilled in the contacts. 1t showed that
the engine trouble encountered by the
Question Mark can be overcome by the
exercise of little ingenuity. And final
" it demonstrated that propellers must
be constructed of sturdier material IL
they are to Withstand the bulletlike
impacts of hail, rain and particles OF
dirt. The Question Mark descended be-
cause of engine trouble. The Fort
Worth came down because OF propeller
trouble. The next attempt to break
the record may show some other defect
but a defect that can be remedied as
easily as the flyers of the Fort Worth
creased the rocker arms on thei- motor.
1t is well within the bounds OF rea-
son that within a comparatively short
time nonstop round-the-world flight
may be made. The Fort Worth covered
almost half the distance in flying over
Texas and while, of course, the weather
variations were not as severe as they
would be in circling the globe, the ship
easily rode through them. Several prof.
ects of this nature are already on foot
and the plaudits Of all civilized people
are awaiting the first to achieve 1t.