THE AIRWAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 788, 8 October 1929, Page 16

THE AIRWAY

(By THE

ROC.

History of Endurance Flying

THE recent wave of endurance flying which has swept America, where flyers have stayed aloft for over a week, appears to be something new, but flyers have been attempting and setting endurance records for more than 25 years—in fact, ever since the Wright brothers first flew.

The first endurance record, of course, was tile first flight made by the Wrights at Kitty Hawk, N.C. That lasted but a few seconds. Then, in 1806, Santos Dumont, the famed Brazilian aviator, flew for 21 seconds in France. Two years later, also in France, Henri Farman stretched that record to 3 minutes and 39 seconds. Wrights Set Mark Later that year Wilbur Wright, flying in France, became the first aviator to measure his flight by hours, remaining aloft for 2 hours 20 minutes 23 seconds. In 1912, the aviator Fourney flew in France for 13 hours 17 minutes 57 seconds. During and after the war airplane stability and endurance increased greatly and in 1920 Boussoutrot and Bernard, French aviators, became the, first human beings to fly more than a day, staying aloft for 24 hours 19 minutes 7 seconds. All of the early endurance flying was done in France. After 1920 things came back to America. In December of 1921, Eddie Stinson and the late Lloyd Bertaud flew for 26 hours and IS minutes over Mlneola, L.L Records Begin to Fall The next record went to Lieutenants Oakley G. Kelley and John A. Macready, famous army flyers. On October 5, 1922, they took off from Rockwell Field, California, in an attempt to make a non-stop flight to New York. Encountering fog in the mountains, they returned to Rockwell Field, and instead of landing, circled

the field until they had reeled off 35 hours IS minutes 30 seconds. These same airmen, on April IT, 1933, stayed aloft over McCook Field, for 36 hours 4 minutes 30 seconds. Then back to France went the record. Coupet and Drouhin flew 37 hours 57 minutes in 1924. Later that year Drouhin and Landry stayed aloft 45 hours 11 minutes 59 seconds. Germany Takes Lead Three years later, in 1927, came the well-remembered flight of Clarence Chamberlin and Bert Acosta over Long Island. In the plane which Chamberlin later flew to Germany, they stayed up 51 hours 11 minutes 25 seconds. In the same year Risticz and Edzard, in Germany, flew 52 hours 22 minutes. Then in 1928 Eddie Stinson and George Haldeman flew 53 hours and 36 minutes. Then a Junkers plane in Germany set the record up to 65 hours, which now stands as the world’s endurance record without refuelling. The first refuelling flight was made 1 by Captain Lowell Smith and Lieutenant Paul Richter at Rockwell Field in 1923, when they kept a DH up for 37 hours 15 minutes. Then, in the first week of 1929, the army plane Question Mark stayed aloft 150 hours 40 minutes. A regular hysteria of refuelling endurance flying followed, resulting in the Robbins-Kelly flight of 172 hours in Texas, the Mitehell-Newcomb flight of 174 hours at Cleveland, the MendellReinhart hop of 246 hours in California, and the Jaekson-O’Brine flight of 420 hours, the present record.