FLYING ACE.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20273, 16 August 1937, Page 4

FLYING ACE.

A RUSSIAN GIANT. AIODEST AND HANDSOME. PUT COUNTRY ON TIIE MAP. (Times Air Mail Service.) LONDON, July 15. Thirty-nine-year-old Col. Michael Gromoff had 23 years of living experiI once before breaking the world longdistance record. The type of modest ! and handsome Russian giant generally j encountered only in novels, he is a crack shot and an all-round athlete, j He can still life a 2021 b bar above his head. At the age of 17, in the dark ages of Russian aviation, lie built his own | glider out of old umbrellas. His entrance into a flying school was opposed ! by his father, a country doctor. I ‘in spite of Hint, at 19 lie had trained I scores of young Reds to fly ;i bullet - lorn wood and canvas Fannan machine. ; Then he flew off to light Admiral Kolj clink. ! It was his Hirer- day flight round Europe in 192 G which first drew ! world all cut i< ui to Soviet aviation. Previous fo his lat-sl High! his grenfc«d achievement w.is in 193 i. Then ihe broke the world record with a | flight of 77'*:. miles in a closed rirruil. Inspired Test Pilot. <I mm off Showed Ids real ability, however, as perhaps the inosl inspired , test pilot the world has ever seen, j every lype of ’plane coming mil of Moscow’s famous Central .Wodyiiamir Institute. These ranged from the smaller war 'planes to Hie ill fated eight engined Maxim Gorki, weighing C2 tons, of which he was chief pilot. lie ■ signers who consider him as one of ; themselves say that ho feels the faults The second of the pil'd-’ .. n fid- : ft 3in.