Viewing page 8 of 75

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[image description]] Man in cockpit [[/image description]] Marin Lt. Col. Marion Carl climbs out of the Navy Skyrocket in which he set the world's altitude record at Edwards Air Force Base.

[[image description]] Planes on a carrier [[/image description]] Grumman Hellcats lined up on the forward deck of the Essex-class carrier U. S. S. Hancock.

[[image description]] Plane flying [[/image description]] Navy's Skyray, with Lt. Comdr. James B. Verdin at the controls, established the official speed record of 753.4 miles an hour.

[[image description]] Plane being dropped from another plane [[/image description]] attaining the enormous speeds claimed for jet craft, the Skyrocket is dropped from the belly of a B-29 30,000 feet. The jet then takes over. All records are listed as unofficial because of the launching.

Naval Aviation Forges Ahead
IF ANY ONE is of the opinion that Navy aviation is not in the forefront of aeronautical development, he can revise his thinking.
After an admittedly slow start, the Navy has won five world flying records for the United States. they are:
The official speed record of 753.4 miles an hour.
The unofficial speed record of 1,327 miles an hour.
The unofficial altitude record of 83,235 feet.
The official non-stop distance record of 11,236 miles and the official record of 55 hours, 18 minutes in flight without refueling. These two records were established September 29, 1946, on a flight from Perth, Australia, to Columbus, Ohio.
Both speed records were set by Navy-trained pilots in Navy planes at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., this fall. The unofficial altitude record also was established by a Navy plane at Edwards.
Lt. Comdr. James B. Verdin, 35, marked up the official speed record in a Skyray interceptor on October 3, and the unofficial record was set 17 days later by a Skyrocket interceptor flown by Scott Crossfield, 32, a World War II Navy fighter pilot now testing for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Marine Lt. Col. Marion Carl, 37, made the altitude record in a Skyrocket on August 21.
Comdr. Verdin is stationed at the Patuxent Naval Air Test Center and Col. Carl and Quantico. Both flew in combat in World War II.
Under international rules, a plane must leave the ground under its own power to establish an official record. The planes flown by both Mr. Crossfield and Col Carl were dropped in midair by B-29 Superfortresses. The results of their flights, therefore, are listed as unofficial, or research records.
Mr. Crossfield's plane was dropped from the belly of a bomber at about 32,000 feet. He zoomed to an altitude above 60,000 feet, gaining momentum as he reached the crest of his arc. Then he started down, giving his aircraft its final burst of fuel. At that instant, it was traveling more than twice the speed of sound.
Col. Carl also was dropped at about 32,000. The plane fell about 4,000 feet before its engines took over and he turned it sharply upward. About two weeks later, after being dropped at about the same altitude, Col. Carl's plane climbed to 68,000 feet and then dived to record an unofficial speed of 1,143 miles an hour.
Aviation still was an infant when the first Navy aeronautical unit was formed in 1911. Officers were assigned to take flying instructions from the Wright brothers and Glenn H. Curtiss.
When World War I arrived, however, the Navy still had only 38 qualified pilots and 163 enlisted men in aviation units.
During the war, naval aviation expanded enormously, but even so, the men whose tradition was the sea were not sold 100 per cent on aviation. But eventually came the carriers-those big floating airports-as well as bigger, better and faster planes, and naval aviation really was on its way.
The Navy probably looks upon Admiral John Towers, now retired, as the "father" of its aviation. One of its earliest flyers, he probably was as responsible as any one person for establishing a great deal of its air arm.
As far as the public is concerned, one of the Navy's most popular and best-known airmen is Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, famous for his spectacular flights over the North and South Poles.

THE WASHINGTON STAR PICTORIAL MAGAZINE, DECEMBER 13, 1953-PAGE 15

Transcription Notes:
I transcribed the images and their captions from left to right, top to bottom, then moved onto the text.