Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-29
Amazing Series Of MIST or
tunes Suffered by Worl
Flyers in Internationf
Speed Duels for Perma
nent Possession Of the
Schneider Cup-Will
HOOdOO Haunt Efforts
to Lift the New Air Tro-
ply Offered by Lady
Houston?
BY EDW Ard JEROME TOCELER

-- HE Schneider Trophy, looked upon
with covetous eyes by many nations
which are air-minded has gone to
its final resting place-the aviation
archives of Great Britain. With its
passing aViators who are striving for
speed marks far beyond anything vet accom-
plished are hopeful that the jinx that accom-
panied every contest for the Schneider Trophy
will have gene where all jinxes are expected
to go, for 49, has figured prominently in every
contest for the famous award
To take the place of the Schneider Trophy
and be further incentive to Speed-minded
aerial experts, another cup has been offered
the Houston Trophy-as the classic of the in
ternational marine speed world This new
trophy has been offered by Lady Fannie Lucy
Houston of England, who, in her own sphere
Is just as prominent as M Jacques Schneider
donor of the Schneider Cup. The Houston
Trophy will cost more than the Schneider Cup,
and as further incentive for continuing efforts
to gain greater speed in the air a prize of
$4,000 is to 60 to the winning pilots until the
cup becomes the permanent posses ion of one
nation.
That the Schneider Trophy contests have writ
ten a chapter in the history of aviation is
denied by none But many of the nations that
originally participated for its possession in the
hope OF winning it permanently decided that
the cost, both in money and lives, was too
great, and they withdrew.
But there is another theory about the
Schneider Trophy-the curse of the jinx "13"
Those who believe in signs and hoodooS point
out that this unlucky number has appeared
again and again during the running of the in
ternational marine air classic They point to
the fact that from the time in 1913 when M.
Schneider offered his famous trophy IS pilots
were killed before the running of the 18th race.
which by Great Britain without a
competitor) on September Is, 1881.
THIS conflict between disciples of logic, who
scott at jinXes of all varieties as sheer
nonsense, and the minister's, who look with
favor upon four-leaf clovers and the left hind
feet Of rabbits shot at midnight in graveyards
by the pale light of the moon began in the Fall
of 1925 when British Schneider Cup flyers elect
ed to visit America with a crew of 10.
1t was the occasion of the ninth running of
. the Schneider Cup, scheduled that year to be
held at Bay Shore, on the Chesapeake, IS
miles from Baltimore, Md. Rules governing
the contest permitted the winning nation, or
club representing nation to hold the cup until
defeated the cup to become the permanent
possession of the club winning three times i'll
five consecutive years.
The United States, with victory at Cowes,
England, in 1928, and Great Britain with a
victory at Naples in 1922, each had one leg
on the cup. Italy, which had won in 1919 and
1920, off to a fresh start, her earlier
victories voided by the five years without
which had interviewed. The keenest of rivalry
was apparent the aces of these three powers
prepared for the contest.
Britain had the inside track-was the odds
favorite. Her heraded mystery ship the
first of supermarne ronoplanes that later
to shatter all speed records) had been developed
at an estimated engineering cost of 81 ,0O0, 00O
Gracefully poised on its sturdy pontoons, it ap-
preached perfection in structural design, power
and beauty. In trial flights a few weeks before
the race it credited by La Federation Aero
nautique International with having flown more
than 20 per cent faster than the previous
record
Her pilots, Capts H. c. Biard and Hubert
Broad, of the Royal Air Force, and Bert Hinkler,
a civilian aviator were the cream of Britain's
distinguished flyers.
With these super-armen with three sturdy
Glostcr racers and their lace in the hole" the
far-famed mystery plane" it is easy to under
stand why John Bull had every expectation of
victory in 1925 Perhaps overconidence had
some bearing the decision to laugh in the
teeth of the gods of i'll fortune by sending to
America the crew of IS.
OPPOSIEG the British were two famous
~ italian flyers, Giovanni de Brigandi and
H. Ricardo Morselli, and the cream of
americas speed kings, George T. Cuddihy,
Ralph A. Ofstie and Frank H Conant of the
United States Navy; James H. Doolittle and