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November, 1931    U.S AIR SERVICES    41

and wondering what had gone wrong with his flying skill.

At another time, Lieutenant Crain worked his way far out towards Kaneohe. Then the wind fell temporarily and a rain cloud moved in. The ground crews were alarmed at seeing him shoot down wind towards the Pali Cliff with nose down at an estimated speed of between 30 and 40 miles an hour. He passed out of sight in the darkness, and the men on the ground expected to hear him crash into the mountains. Much to their relief, he finally emerged from the rain, and another crisis had passed.

   Three Air Corps officers, stationed at Wheeler Field, Honolulu, Hawaii, collaborated in the construction and flight-testing of the glider with which the unnofficial world's duration record was made--2nd Lieuts. William J. Scott, William A. Cocke, Jr., and John C. Crain. The last two named are Reserve officers on extended active duty, having recently been graduated from the Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field, Texas. Both of them entertain hopes of being commissioned in the Air Corps, Regular Army.

   The glider is a sailplane in type. It was designed by Lieutenant Cocke, who states that he followed roughly the lines of the Bowlus Glider, which was recently used by Jack Barstow, of Point Loma, Calif., when he set an American unofficial record of 15 hours and 13 minutes. The glider weighs 300 pounds and has a wing spread of 60 feet, 7 inches. The fuselage and wing are of wood construction, mostly spruce. Metal fittings are also used. Because of the bumpy wind encountered in Hawaii, Lieutenant Cocke designed the wing of extra strength. The three officers named above worked on the construction of the glider for nearly a year.

   At a luncheon in Honoulu given in honor of these three Army pilots, Lieutenant Scott, in touching on Lieutenant Crain's record flight, stated that the latter wanted to land earlier, but that he and Lieutenant Cocke had allowed cows to pasture in the landing field to prevent Crain from landing. "Crain shouted down that he was landing and for us to clear the field," Lieutenant Scott related. "Cocke said, 'Don't drive those cows away or he'll land.' So we let the cows pasture a while longer with Crain circling overhead waiting for a chance to land."
   
  The glider camp was established above Kaneohe on July 18th, exactly a week from the time Lieutenant Crain took off on his record flight.  On July 19th, Lieutenant Cocke took off from the ridge back of Kaneohe and flew 3 hours and 55 minutes, finally landing because of the cold.  At midnight of July 21st-22nd, Lieutenant Cocke again took off from the ridge.  Caught in a down current of air, he crashed into the guava bushes at the foot of the mountain.  The following afternoon he had a similar experience.

  On the morning of July 25th, the glider men took their machine to the abandoned pineapple field, and in the afternoon used the tow car to give the glider its altitude.

  the three officers plan to enter their glider in a competition to be held in Hawaii in the near future, after making several minor improvements thereon.

     Dr. Samuel W. Stratton

  IN THE death of Sr.  Samuel W. Stratton, chairman of the Massachusetts Insitute of Technology, suddenly at his home in Boston on October 18 while dictating a tribute to Thomas A. Edison, aeronautics lost one of its important personalities.  The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, of which he was one of the original members, states that before the World War Doctor Stratton saw clearly the need for organized scientific research on the fundamental problems of flight in order to develop aircraft to a point of value as an agency of transportation and instrument in national defense.  Appointed by President Wilson, 1915, one of the original members of that committee as a representative of the Bureau of Standards, of which he was then the director, he served it continuously until his death.  When he left his post as director of the Bureau of Standards in 1923 to accept the presidency of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he was immediately reappointed by President Harding a member of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics to fill a vacancy in the membership appointed from private life.

  He was elected secretary of the committee in 1916.  As such he directed the administrative activities of the organization and was a prime mover in the establishment of the committee's research laboratory known as the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory at Langley Field, Va.  He served as secretary until 1923.  He was also chairman of the important subcommittee on power plants for aircraft since its creation in 1916.  In the latter capacity, Doctor Stratton exerted great influence in the preparation of the Government's programs of scientific research in the field of aircraft engine development.

  Doctor Stratton's death leaves only three of the original twelve members still serving on the committee; namely, Dr. Joseph S. Ames, chairman, president of Johns Hopkins University; Dr. Charles F. Marvin, Chief of the Weather Bureau; and Dr. William F. Durand, of Stanford University.

  THE U.S.S. Los Angeles, with sixty-two persons on board, flew over Trenton, Baltimore, Washington, Annapolis, Dover and the various towns along the Jersey Coast, recently, returning to the Naval Air Station at Lakehurst, N. J., where she moored and serviced.  A second flight was made the same day, during which flight Lieut. D. W. Harrigan and Lieut. H. L. Young, in N-2-Y landplanes, made thirteen successful night landings to the airplane landing mechanism of the ship, Lieutenant Harrigan making the first night landing.  The following day the ship made another flight over New York City where she flew through a smoke screen made by a commercial plane as arranged by Paramount News.

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  Announcement is received of the marriage of Mrs. Ena Lewis Vought to Mr. Ottavio Prochet, on Wednesday, the fourteenth of October, in New York City.  Mr. and Mrs. Prochet will be at home after Sunday, the first of November, at 270 Park Avenue.