FIGHT WITH DEATH.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3689, 10 September 1927, Page 1

FIGHT WITH DEATH.

MAN’S CONQUEST OF AIR,

Battling bursts of flame that four times blazed in his plane, after his engine burst; grimly maintaining control while seven cylinder heads successively hurtled through fuselage and wings, one wrenching the oxygen tube from his mouth; subduing the flames after falling from 47,000 ft. to 20,000 ft., on his altitude record seeking flights; then to scorn to jump with his parachute, for fear of losing his precious barographs; recovering his tube, while gasping for breath, and piloting his craft to a safe landing in a corn Held near Washington —such ip the chapter of man’s conquest over the air, written by Lieutenant Carlton Champion, a 30-year-old naval aviator. He previously held the seaplane altitude record, with 37,995 ft., with the same plane and the same barographs. Once the danger of flying metal was past, Lieutenant Champion’s greatest difficulty lay in the loss of his oxygen tube. The rarified atmosphere had had its effect, and, in a semi-conscious condition, a'lmost flat on his back, he recovered his senses only after lie had continued to work mechanically with his hands and found the tube. It was then above him, indicating that the plane was upside down. He restored its balance after he had fallen 13,000 feet —whether straight or topsyturvey he does not know. When the engine-caught fire, the aviator put the machine into a sideslip, to extinguish the flames. Four times he did this, after fresh fires appeared. Two cylinder heads were blown off when he first noticed' vibration in his machine at the zenith of his flight; the other cylinder heads, pistons and connecting-rods were lost when he was without his oxygen tube. Centrifugal force accounts for the further disruption of I he engine. Those watching from the ground had anxious moments as they saw the plane, apparently out of control, hurtling through space downward at a terrific pace. They lost it for a while, and hastened in the direction it was pointing to, expecting to see a tragedy. They found Lieutenant Champion, his hooded "helmet removed, awaiting transport to the air station. One barograph was destroyed, the other intact. It is estimated the temperature was 90 degrees below zero at the highest point of the flight.