AMAZING AIR ADVENTURE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3477, 4 May 1920, Page 6

AMAZING AIR ADVENTURE.

FALL FROM A RECORD HEIGHT

Major R. W. Schroeder, chief test pilot at Dayton (Ohio), recently ascended to the record height of 36,000 feet (nearly seven miles), then fainted and fell over five miles in a sheer nose dive, yet lives to tell the tale. Major Schroeder came within seven second of being dashed to death. but his subconscious sense, his brotherotficers say, must have saved him when 2000 feet above the earth, for -he made a perfect landing When lifted from the machine. where he was seated apparently lifeless, the airlnan‘s eyeballs and lids were frozen, and his heart thundering in pulsations which were noticeable through his thick flying clothes. In the hospital, where the doctors expressed the hope that ’he would regain his sight in a few jdays, Major Schroeder told the fol'lowing remarkable t'ale:~~ ! “I was thinking of nothing but at.itaining a height of 40,000 feet, which I know to be possible, when the oxygen suddenly ceased toiflow. I leaned forward ‘and turned the cock wide ‘open, but no oxygen came. Realising that something was wrong, I raised‘ my goggles, which were coated’with ice within and without, just to see} whether I had fully opened the tanki ‘containing my emergency supply. Alll ,at once it seemed as though a terrific ‘explosion had taken place inside my head. My eyes hurt terrilbly. I could‘ not open them. I seemed to be peeping’ through a crack. There was a‘ tremendous rush of air, and I seemed‘ to be falling. I think I must have‘ pulled hard on the stick, because I knew I must straighten out for the glide and the machine appeared to ride easily. Again I opened my eyes‘ and saw Wilbur Wright Field and the hangars. I could not land there, and I was afraid my eyes would fail. I tilted the machine for a climb, intending to make sure of a good altitude, then jump for it with a parachute, because I knew this could be done with eyes closed. At that instant M‘Cook‘s Field came in sight. I do not remember landing. I had no sense of fear. I knew only of the pain‘ in my eyes and the awful explosion in my head.” Major Sc_hroeder’s clothes were electrically heated. For two hours he kept the machine at the steepest possible angle. His thermometer showed that he flew in a temperature of sdeg. below zero. Army ofiicers who calibrated the barographs say that Major Schroeder reached a height 3000 feet higher than ,the“pl-evious al- _ titude record. I