Eight Miles Up

Up where the mercury solidifies after 39DEG below Zero; up where the air is so thin that one's body feels as puffy as a cloud--sat Capt. Hawthorne C. Gray in the basket of a free balloon. Except for the glass of his goggles he was covered with fur and leather. A machine pumped electrically-warmed oxygen into his lungs. His instruments, he' said, indicated an altitude of 41,000 feet (almost eight miles). This was higher than any man had ever been,* either by free balloon or airplane. The previous record for a free balloon was 35,433 feet; for an airplane, 40,820 feet (TIME, Sept. 6).

Letting gas out of his balloon, Captain Gray began to descend. At 8,000 feet, he found himself falling faster than would be pleasant for a landing, so he adjusted his parachute, stepped out into nothingness, floated to the ground uninjured at Golden Gate, Ill., 100 miles from Scott Field (Belleville, Ill.) his starting point. His trip to the outer edge of the world and back took two and one-half hours.

Gliding

In Passiten, Germany, it was a nice day for gliding--plenty of gusts of wind, no rain. So Ferdinand Schulz established a new world's record by keeping his glider in the air for 14 hours, 8 minutes.

A glider, as everyone knows, is a small, motorless, extremely light-weight airplane. It usually takes the air by coasting down a hillside to gain sufficient momentum. A more modern method is to hold the glider steady, attach to its nose a shock cord made of rubber bands. Tension is applied to the shock cord and, on a given signal, the glider is flipped suddenly into the air like a pebble from a slingshot. An automatic release hook then drops the shock cord. Once in the air, the pilot of a glider must depend on air currents. Usually he circles around a hill, taking advantage of swirling gusts of wind to gain altitude and maintain flying speed. He must know his air pockets better than any motor-propelled aviator.. Landing is difficult; but not dangerous, because the glider is neither heavy nor swift. Recently a skilled German pilot, Herr Espenlaub, landed his glider after being set loose from an airplane at a height of 5,000 feet. Many a gliding enthusiast skims the hills of Germany and France. In the U. S. they are rare.

Nungesser & Coli

At Le Bourget (Paris airport) hundreds of humans were squatting, dancing, shouting on a flat and barren plain in the dead of night. Revelers in. evening clothes uncorked champagne bottles for actresses who did not mind sitting on the grass. Peasants were satisfied with good red wine and longish sandwiches. Suddenly, at 3:15 a. m., the plainsfolk scampered toward other folk who cheered as a huge, ghostly bird emerged from a huger tent.

White Bird, the biplane of Captain Charles Eugene Jules Marie Nungesser and Captain Francois Coli had come out of its hangar. The plainsfolk, awed, were so quiet they could hear the gurgle of 1,000 gallons of gasoline which were promptly put into the White Bird. Its engine was tested--roared magnificently. Soon Captains Nungesser and Coli gave it a final inspection. Soon they kissed relatives, mechanics, engineers; climbed aboard, while French soldiers with bayonets kept the crowd at a distance. Engineer Carol, designer of the White Bird, fell to the ground, weeping, as the plane left the soil of France at 5:17 a.m.

The Start. Dropping its landing gear to lessen its load, the White Bird skirted the southern coasts of England and Ireland, pointed its nose toward Newfoundland. It had no wireless. It was flying north of the usual steamship lanes. An angry wind from the west was beating in its face, slowing its speed. Expecting to reach New York in 35 hours, it carried only enough gasoline for 40 hours flying.

Hope. The world waited--40 hours, 50 hours--no ship had seen or heard the White Bird since it soared along the Irish coast line. Captains Nungesser and Coli were either floating on the Atlantic's waves or resting in peace on its bed. Ships and planes set out from Europe and America with hopes of seeing a floating White Bird.

Meanwhile experts expressed astonishment that the White Bird should take off in the face of unfavorable weather conditions. Weather Bureau officials said that adverse winds in Mid-Atlantic would retard the plane by 25 miles an hour. Said U. S. Aviator Floyd Bennet: "Fighting a head wind is discouraging and uses a lot of gasoline."

*Last week the German admiralty announced having touched a spot lower in the world than any spot recorded--a spot 34,416 feet below sea level. With line and sinker, the cruiser Emden had found it, in the so-called "Japanese Ditch," running from Japan down to the Philippine Islands. The greatest ocean depth previously known was 32,644 feet, off the east coasts of Japan.