Viewing page 25 of 77

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

The First Gordon Bennett Balloon Race 
(By Science Service) 
When fifteen gigantic bubbles of gas bearing the pilots and aides of eight nations floated into the air at the Detroit Ford airport on Saturday afternoon,...……. America's greatest ballooning event was under way. for the first time the Gordon Bennett International Cup Balloon Race was held in America.

Free ballooning is more of a sport than the flying of airplanes and dirigibles, whose engines allow them to conquer adverse winds and outride bad weather. Although the balloon pilot can skillfully utilize air currents at various altitudes, the balloon must travel where the winds take it. 

Because the prevailing winds for Detroit are from the southwest there was great hope that a new distance record would be established this year. Air currents running northeast would carry the balloonists into upper Quebec or Nova Scotia, possibly well beyond the present distance record of 1.382 miles established in 1912 by the French team captain, Maurice Bienaime, a contestant this year. More westerly winds would carry the balloons farther south, were their flight would be stopped by the Atlantic Ocean. 

Besides the United States whose team captain, Wade T. Van Orman, won the race last year, seven countries competed: Spain, Italy, England, Germany, Switzerland,, France and Belgium. The United States and Germany each had three balloons entered; Italy, France and Belgium, each two; England, Switzerland and Spain each one. 

In addition to the balloon "Goodyear VI", piloted by Van Orman, the present champion, the American entries were the "Detroit", piloted by E. J. Hill and an army balloon in chare of Captain W. E. Kepner. There three contestants were selected at an elimination race held earlier this year at Akron. 

German Entered the races for the first time since the war with three balloons. Ferdinand Eimermacher, who piloted the "Muenster", has made more than 165 flights in free balloons since 1909. His son was the aide in one of the other German entries. Another German pilot, Hugo Kaulen, is holder of the world's balloon duration record of 87 hours, while Dr. R. Hallben, a Berlin eye specialist achieved a world's balloon record in 1924 when he landed within 400 feet of a predetermined goal 180 miles from the starting point. 

Lieut. Ernest Demuyter, pilot of the famous Belgian racer "Beligica", has won the cup four times in the last six contests and was victor in the disastrous 1923 race when an electrical storm wrecked five balloons. The other Belgian balloon was piloted by Lieut. P. Quersin. 

The English pilot, Squadron Leader R. S. Booth, won distinction when he saved the runaway dirigible R-33 after an adventurous ride over the North Sea. Major Eraldo Ilari, pilot of the Italian balloon "Rex", similarly saved the airship "Roma", after-wards wrecked in this country. Lieut-Col. Domenico Leone piloted the other Italian entry, the "Dux."

The latest navigational aids were used this year by the ballonists. The German teams brough instruments for computing quickly their geographical position while in the air, and Van Orman had installed an alarm altimeter which rings a bell and flashes a light when the balloon falls. 

At the Start 
[[image]]