Hyphen Dash

Up from Paris' Le Bourget Field, into the dawn one day last week flew a great Dewoitine monoplane built for Perfumer Franc,ois Coty. Its long, tapered wings stretched out 95 ft. Its Hispano Suiza engine roared with 650 h. p. Its narrow fuselage bore the legend Trait d'Union ("Hyphen"). In the cabin were short, squint-eyed Joseph Marie Lebrix, onetime flying partner (now enemy) of Dieudonne Coste; famed Aerobat Marcel Doret, and Mechanic Rene Mesnin. They were bound nonstop for Tokyo, 6,032 mi. away, farther than any plane had flown in a straight line. They were confident, because only a few weeks ago they had flown the Trait d'Union 6,560 mi. around a closed course for a world record. That took them 70 hr.; this should take 62.

Although the flyers refused to discuss it, observers guessed that if the Tokyo flight were successful the Trait d'Union would fly on across the Pacific and attempt to smash the Winnie Mae's record around the world. A spare engine waited in Tokyo; another spare engine in Manhattan.

Nothing was heard of the plane for hours after it passed Belgium. Then, at early evening, Moscow reported it overhead, going strong. Again it disappeared, over Siberia's wastelands. At 10:30 that night the motor quit. Lebrix aroused the sleeping mechanic, jumped with him. Doret brought the Trait d'Union nearby to the ground, "tailed out" just before the ship crashed into treetops not far from Irkutsk.

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