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[[newspaper clipping]]
QUALIFY AS PILOTS

Two Army Officers Win Licenses at College Park. 

WORLD'S RECORD BROKEN

Lieut. Milling Excels in Landing Within Given Space – Exhibition of Expert Work

^[[July 7    11]]

Two Pilots' licenses were acquired and a world's record was broken by the army officers flying the government biplane at College Park yesterday. The world's record fell to [[ink underlined]] Lieut. Thomas de Witte Milling [[/ink underline]] and is considered quite an achievement. 

The landing feat of Lieut. Milling was in the course of qualifying for a pilot's license. One of the tests for the licenses that the motor must be stopped while the machine is in the air and a landing made within a given distance of a designated spot. There has been a good deal of uncertainty as to just how this distance should be measured, and in the early days, when pilots were less expert than they are now, there usually was a twenty-foot rectangle marked off on the ground and the machine was landed as near as might be in this square. 

Exhibit of Expert Work.

The landing mark yesterday was a sheet of canvas about five square. Lieut. Milling cut off the motor about ten feet in the air and put the machine almost squarely on top of the campus. Measurements showed that the center of the canvas was just five feet from the center of the operator's seat on the machine. This was a world's record. The next best landing — six feet — stands to the credit of Walter Brookins. That record has also been held at different times by Charles F. Willard and Phil Parmelee.

The qualification for the pilots license was a mere formality.  The license does not mean anything and does not indicate that the aviator can do anything he could not do before. Still, it is the mark of proficiency and carries the indorsement of the Aero Club of America. For lack of any better authority, aviation being still a new heart, flying men have accepted the vise of the Aero Club as the correct thing.

In Good Company. 

An aeroplane pilot is in quite respectable aviation company after he holds a license. Glenn Curtiss, the Wrights, Lieut. Frank Lahm and others having qualified for these licenses. But there are other aviators, like Harry Atwood, who hold world's records and have never "qualified" for the license.

The trials had to be witnessed by an accredited representative of the Aero Club, and Dr. J. W. Bovee of this city was the observer. Capt. Charles DeForrest Chandler was also an observer. The test consists in putting two markers, flags or pylons 500 meters apart and having the aviator make two flights, on which he turns the figure eight five times during each flight around the marks. He ascends 165 feet on the flight, and on coming to the ground as to cut off the motor while the machine is still in the air, and land within 165 feet of a given point.

Each Carries a Passenger.

Both Lieut. Arnold and Lieut. Milling qualified easily. It was on his first flight that Lieut. Milling broke the landing record. On the last two flights each of the officers carried one of the official observers with them. This is not required by the rules of the Aero Club, but really makes the test a good deal more difficult. The way it happened was that the afternoon was hot and Capt. Chandler complained that he did not want to "hike" half a mile through the sun to the far pylon where he had been observing. Lieut. Milling thereupon invited him to jump into the machine, saying he would take him out. Instead of merely doing this he flew around the course with his observer, so Capt. Chandler could watch the Terrence at each end of the course and Dr. Bovee could sit in the shade and fan himself.

Breaks Altitude Record.

There was but one flight made in the forenoon at the park. Lieut. Arnold went up to a height of 3,000 feet, thus breaking the altitude record for Washington. The aeroplane has proved a faster machine than was expected and possibly will be able to establish some speed records when arrangements are perfected for accurately timing the flights.

Two Curtiss machines have been ordered for the government work at the park, though it will be some days before they arrive. When the Burgess-Wright machine that has been ordered is assembled there will be four government machines at the park. This probably will complete the War Department equipment for the present.
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At a meeting of the executive board of the Baptist Orphanage of Virginiia at Salem, Va., plans were set on foot for building a cottage, to cost $10,000, as a memorial to the late Mr. Carpenter of Clinton Forge, Va., who was a generous friend of the institution.
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