IN 360 MILE FLIGHT
Capt. James Flies From Atlantic City to Boston For Globe Trophy
BOSTON, May 29.—At a speed of about 115 miles an hour, Capt.
Mansell James of the British Royal Air Force flew yesterday in a Sopwith airplane from Atlantic City, N. J., to Boston for the Boston Globe aerial trophy and a cash prize of $1000.
The machine Capt. James flew is what is known as a "Camel"—one of the speediest machines built and the machine which downed the German Albatross in the war. This and the French Spad were the two fast machines with which the allies were able to gain air domination over the Germans, and this is the first time a Camel has been flown in this country.
Met Strong Head Winds
The Camel, under normal conditions, is capable of 120 miles an hour, but Capt. James had strong head winds nearly all the way from Atlantic City to Boston—a distance of 360 miles—and this reduced his time to 115 miles an hour.
This is one of the fastest flights ever made in this country and will in all probability capture the Globe trophy and cash prize of $1000, as Melvin Hodgdon's flight last week from Boston to Atlantic City, over the same course, was made at a speed of about 90 miles an hour. Capt. James went 25 miles an hour faster than Hodgdon.
First Flight in America
A remarkable thing about this flight of Capt. James was that he had never flown in this country before and found his way by chart and compass to a field eight miles north of Boston. He went right straight to the field as if he had been flying the course all his life.
The only thing to guide him to that field was a flying machine that had been placed near the point where he was expected to land and of which he had been notified by telegraph early in the day.
And, curiously enough, so trained are the eyes of aviators for flying machines that he was able to see this machine—a mere speck on the field—when he was about four miles distant and 3000 feet in the air, and he landed within 100 feet of that machine—landed like a sheet of paper on a calm day.
Gives Crowd a Bad Scare
At a few minutes before 6 o'clock Capt. James re-entered his machine, tested the propeller and at exactly 6 o'clock left the ground for Mitchell Field, L. I., 240 miles away. But before he got away he gave the crown that had gathered on the field a bad scare.
After climbing about 1000 feet he turned sharply and volplaned straight down at the crowd. For a moment it looked as if something had gone wrong. When about 50 feet above the crowd he swooped and nosed her up into the sky. But the way that crowd scattered was a caution. And no wonder, for it certainly looked as if that 1600-pound machine was going to smash right into the crowd and then into the ground.
The Lowell Sun (Lowell, Massachusetts) - Thursday, May, 29, 1919
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