Imperial Valley press., 1929-05-27
RECORD
MADE. BY
Flyers
Kelly And Robbins Set
High Mark For Endur-
ance Flight.
PROP GOES BA
Flyers Better Question
Mark Record by Almost
Entire Day.

FORT WORTH, Tex, May 81.
U.H>-Their names written down in
the pages of aviation history, Reg
Robbins, 26 year old self-made'
flyer, and Jim Kelly, 90, former
eowpuncher, received the plaudits
of the world today after accomplish
ing the greatest aerial endurance
excursion in history.
The two men were forced to end
heir refueling endurance flight
yesterday when the propeller Of
their rebuilt cabin monoplane Fort
Worth split and threatened disas-
ter.
When they brought their plane to
rest, they had been in the air 172
Lours and 81 minutes, nearly %
hours greater than the former
world S mark set by the army plane
Question Mark.
Weary, spattered with oil, un-
shaven and deafened by the con-
slant roar of their Wright whirl-
wind motor, Robbins and Kelly had
only regrets that the propellers
failed them. They were positive
they could have remained aloft at
least 800 hours.
They were engulfed by a cheer
ing mob of $4,000 persons who gath
cred at the field and threatened to
crush them with their enthusiastic
acclaim. The two young men had
dropped word earlier in the day
that they were expecting to land
at 4 p. IN. and the news flashed
through Fort Worth.
Early in the afternoon a crowd
started gathering on Meacham Field,
churned to mud by the rain which
had great deal to do with the
ending of the flight. When the
flyers set their plane down at 4:07
P. m. the mob surged forward, break
ing through police lines to reach tho
flyers.
Mrs. Robbins and the five year
old son of the flyer and Mrs. Kelly,
the eX-cowboy's bride of six weeks,
were lifted to the shoulders of men
in the crowd and carried to the
plane.
Weeping for joy, the two women
embraced their husbands, Kelly des-
cribing the enthusiastic kisses from
his bride as by far the best record
possible.
English Aviatrix There
Lady Mary Heath, noted English
avia..-X, was in the foreground in
stocking feet. Her shoes were
pulled off by the mud as she ran
to accord the flyers welcome.
Robbins and Kelly were taken in
police ear to their homes, to rest
their weary bodies before Fort
Worth accorded them banquets, din
ners and other honors to acclaim
their feat.
The men had been up seven nights
and parts of eight days. They went
aloft at 1888 a. m. Sunday, May 10.
They droned around and around
Meacham Field, the engine of their
plane never faltering in its grind.
Friday an electric storm broke and
the two scared higher, turning to-
wards Dallas, 30 miles away, to es-
cape the storm. But the constant
beat of the propeller widened o
break which started when the prop
struck belt buckle and the added
struggle against the rain which
started again Saturday night, caused
it to swell.
Finally the vibration became so
great as to cause the men to decide
that they had better put an end to
their circling,
The refueling crew, X. X. Hoff-
man and H. S. Jones. fled from the
pnudits of the crowd and could not
be located. Kelly and Robbins were
loud in their praise of the two, in
sisting that they deserved as much
credit as did the men who remained
in air longer than human beings ever
had before.