Evening star., 1932-07-25

TINE routes laboriously Travelled by
George Washington afoot, on
horse and by coach during his
lifetime are being retraced to-
day by Mai James H. Doolittle
and Miss Anne Madison Washington,
great-sreat-great-n niece of the first
President. in a roaring yellow mono
plane. which Is flying each hour a dis
tance which would have cost Washing
ton nine days of hard travel.
Doolittle and Miss Washington, leav-
ing Kittery. Me. with the first flush OF
dawn made their first landing at
Neutrality-suspicious. Airport at 7:45
o'clock, with approximately cne-fourth
of their long flight behind them.
A half hour was spent in refueling at
the local airport. $50 gallons OF gasoline
being pumped into the tanks Of the
speedv low-wing monoplane. With the
great load of fuel aboard. Doolittle made
one of the most breath-taking take-of1s
seen at the local airport in many
months.
He TAXED to take-of position at
the farthest corner Of the field south OF
the Ludington hangar, adjoining the
Washington Alexandria highway. gave
his motor brief full-throttle test.
headed toward the Lincoln Memorial
ard kicked off his brakes. With motor
full out" he started his run across the
airport, while news photographers, cam
eras leveled, waited the moment when
his wheels would leave the ground.
Nearly Hits Fence.
AS the yards slipped by, Doolittle held
the little ship hard On the ground. The
field boundary along Military ROAD
neared, and still he held it down, strlV-
ing for the few extra yards OF speed
necessary to lift the heavily laden
plane. Finally, when it appeared that
he must surely crash headlong into the
boundary fence, he eased back the con-
troll stick and roared over the fence
with a clearance of inches only. He
circled the field, gaining altitude slowly,
and then headed for Mount Vernon.
During the half-hour fueling stop
here Miss Washington, who is making
her third airplane fight today, had
little to say except Everything Is going
splendidly and we dropped every pack
age of mail along the way right on the
dot"
Doolittle and Miss Washington took
off from Boston for Kittery at 1925
o'clock this morning with 80 packages
of mail aboard, to be dropped at so
prominent places reached by Wash
ington in his travels. They headed
north to Kittery, the farthest point
north reached by Washington, dropped
the first package and then headed
down the Atlantic seaboard. They were
accompanied on the flight to Wash :
ington by A. F. Maple Of the Aero
nautical Chamber of Commerce.
DoolittIe and Miss Washington were
welcomed at the local airport, four
hours after their Boston take-off, by
Representative Sol Bloom, director of
the United States George Washington
Bicentennial Commission, under aus
pices of which the flight is being made.
Doolittle handed the package of mail
destined for delivery here to post
man from the city post Office and a
half hour later the mail had been can
celed and was on its way to list of
prominent addresses, headed by Presi-
dent Hoover.
Fueling Stop at 2;5O PM.
The $50 gallons of fuel taken aboard
here was expected to carry Dcolittie
and Miss Washington over the network
Of Washington's travels in Virginia
North Carolina, West Virginia and
SOuInern fenNSylVdnld 10 FltlSpuISl
where another fueling stop was sched-
uled at about 2:30 o'clock this after
neon. The flight is expected to end at
9:l5 o'clock tonight at Newark Airport
the great New York air transport ter
minal, after some 1900 miles of flying
Todays flight is being made, nc.
only as a Bicentennial tribute to George
Washington, but also to commemorate
the l57th anniversary of the founding
OF the United States Postal Service. II
is hoped that the 80 packages of mail
sent with Doolittle will be Cancelled
at the widely scattered post Offices en-
route with today's cancellation marks
and that they will all be delivered tomor-
raw, the anniversary Of the establish
ment of the Postal Service, to the Ma
tons leaders to whom they are ad-
dressed.
After leaving Kittery, Doolittle dropped
packages Of mail at Portsmouth, N. H.
Boston, Providence, New Haven: tht
replica of Mount Vernon in Prospect
Park, Brooklyn; Morristown and Tren-
ton, N. j.; Philadelphia and Valley
Forge, Pa, and Annapolis, Md.