Evening star., 1936-05-17
By Joseph S. Edgerfon.

~ her teeth, her feet numb in
~ side three pairs of heavy wool
4 n socks, leather slippers and
fleece lined boots, pretty young bru-
nette girl, bundled in double flying
suit, helmet and heavy gloves, anx-
iously watched the altimeter of hel
tiny 440-pound monoplane as the
needle crept with tantalizing slowness
and halting irregularity toward the
18,000-foot mark.
She was very busy young lady
Constantly she had to fight to keer
the little ship climbing at just the
right speed to avoid sailing in the
thin, cold air and going off into q
slip or a spin, which would have cost
her many hard-earned feet of alti.
tude. She had to keep pushing q
metal rod into big, fabric-coverec
jar between her knees, to maintain
the flow Of oxygen through long
tube ard, via the pipestem, into hel
mouth and laboring lungs. Frequently
she made q fractional adjustment Of
the gasoline mixing valve to get just
a tiny bit more power out of the
oxygen starved little 40-horsepowel
engine. She scarcely had time tc
glance for more than a moment al
the softly green rolling folds Of the
Virginia mountains. warm under hot
May sun, three miles below.
Carefully she coaxed the little black
and red airplane up and up, foot by
foot, until finally, with the altimetel
needle we'll past the 18.000-degree
mark, she found she could get nc
higher. She took quick look at the
two paragraphs, in their slings OF
heavy rubber bands, one swinging
above and in front of her. the other
Just behind her back, found them
working, eased of the throttle ano
started for the earth in long, spiral
ing glide.
With her now rode new interna-
tional record, the fiftieth world ali
mark for the United States. During
a flight of little more than three
hours, which began at sun-backed
dusty Washington Airport in the hot
glare Of a midday May sun, and which
now was about to end on Endless
Caverns Airport, near Newmarket,
Va, in the beautiful Shenandoah VAL
ley. the little dark-haired pilot, Miss
Helen Richey, now a resident Of
Washington, had established more
than one record-the important
fiftieth.
She had automatically established
the first feminine 1ight-airplane alti-
tude record, fourth category. national
as well as international. She had a
reasonable assurance that she had
passed the brand-new international
record Of 17,94o feet for light air.
planes Of the fourth category, estab-
lished only two weeks earlier by Ben
tamin King, local sportsman pilot,
in whose plane she was flying. She
had little hope, however, that she had
exceeded his mark by the necessary
200 meters, or 656 feet, to give her
an official new world mark. Within
q few moments, by rolling the little
plane to a stop on the Endless Caverns
field, she would earn 5000 prize,
offered by Mai. E. M. Brown to the
first woman flyer to land there to
complete a world record flight.
T ESS than two years ago the United
States, birthplace of the airplane,
held only II of the 80 then recog-
nized world aviation records. Today,
after one of the most spectacular
periods of record snatching" in the
history Of flying, the Nation not only
holds so international records. but is
looking forward to number of addi-
tional records during the Summer.
In the past two years the number
of recognized world marks also has
grown, in tribute to the increasing
versatility of the modern airplane Not
only are there tiny airplanes like that
Of Ben Kings which are capable Of
performances impossible a few years
ago for the aerial midgets, but there
are air giants like the Pacific clippers
and the great new land transports,
which open entirely new performance
brackets.
Today the worlds aviators have
established total Of 131 records and
there are many others still unclaimed.
France. for many years undisputed
leader in world air records, today
holds SO Of the official marks: Italy
holds 2s. Germany and Poland each,
and Great Britain, /.
Local pilots have played stellar
role In the procession to world leader
ship In the air. Ben King, gray-haired,
youthful civil engineer, who took to
flying for sport and recreation, has
captured eight world records within
less than a year. For some months 1t
seemed that the race for world rec
ords had settled down to a nip-and-
tuck battle between King and the
aviators Of France. They matched
record for record during the Winter
and 1t was not until February /, when
the National Aeronautic Association
called upon American pilots for an or
ganized effort, that the country really
began to forge ahead Of the French.
1t was Miss Richey, again, who
opened the February drive for records.
Climbing into the cockpit of Kings
midget single-seater at Langley Field,
Va, in the bitter cold Of a Winter
midnight, she took on at 1908 am.
February 1, to establish q world speed
record for 100 kilometers for Glass c
light airplanes. She also won 500
prize posted by the National Aero
nautic Association for the first world
record established on or after Feb
riary !.