FOUR MILES HIGH.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19466, 13 November 1928, Page 2

FOUR MILES HIGH.

LADY HEATH'S EXPLOIT. WORLD'S RECORD CLIMB. (pEOil OUB OWS COEEBSPOHDBNT.) LONDON, October 5. Lady Heath broke the British solo altitude record at Croydon on October 4th, attaining a height of 23,000 feetmcre than ftrar miles—in a Cirrus Moth light 'plane. The previous British official height record was one of 20,000 ft, made by Captain G. De Haviland. The greatest unofficial recorded height in this country was attained just after the war in a D.H. Napier bombing Captain N. Lang, who reached 30,000tt —or nearly six miles high. Ascending from Croydon at H.o*> a.m.. Lady Heath was one hour seven minutes in reaching her maximum altitude, but it only took her ten minutes to dive back to earth. "It was intensely cold at 23,000 ft, Lady Heath stated on alighting, "but I enjoyed myself. At 22,000 ft frost formed on my goggles. The intense cold threatened to stop my engine, otherwise I could have gone much higher. The* visibility was wonderful, and I could see the French coast. I was sorry to come down,." Lady Heath carried no special oxygen breathing apparatus. On previous high flightß she had not found her breathing affected, and this time she was not troubled in any way by the rarified air. / "The two outstanding sensations, she added, "were the loneliness of flying by oneself thousands of feet above ground, and the exhilarating effect of the pure air. Although one is fully occupied in flying a machine, watching instruments, and listening to the running of the engine, this reeling of exhilaration is paramount." Lady Heath carried two sealed baragraphs. which automatically recorded her height, and these were takencharge of officially by Lieut.-Com-mander H. Perrin, who watched the flight on behalf of the Royal Aero Club. Previous Flights. Lady Heath, who was formerly Mrs Elliott-Lynn, having married Sir James Heath, the 75-year-old ironmaster and coalowner, in' October last, has had a brilliant career as an airwoman.' Last May she flew to Croydon from Capetown after a flight in which she established several records:— . First woman to fly through Africa. First light 'plane flight from Capetown to Cairo. First solo crossing from the Cape to Cairo. First woman to fly from the Cape to England. .. She has piloted an air liner from Amsterdam to Croydon, and in October last, with a passenger, attained a height of 19,000 ft, which equalled the record set up two months previously by Lady Bailey. "Moths" not "Butterflies." Thus, the "Morning Post," in its leader columns:— The society woman of yesterday, who. displayed a more than ordinary adventurous spiiit, was apt to be called a '/butterfly"; the adventurous woman of to-day ought more properly to be nicknamed a "moth." Women are doing incredible things with the little aeroplanes so named. Lady Baily, refused permission to fly over the Soudan on her 'return trip home from the Cape, airily alters her course over the dark heart of Africa, and after a ten-days' solo flight above untracked forests, lands triumphantly . at Loanda, on the West Coast, a good thousand, miles from her starting point, in the Belgian Congo. This is perhaps the most hazardous flight yet undertaken by a woman, and the British public will await full details of her adventure with impatience. * Meanwhile, another British airwoman, Lady Heath, also in a Moth machine, established at Croydon yesterday, a new world's altitude record for light aeroplanes, ascending to over 26,000 ft. Such aerial feats by women, whose achievements in the world of sportsmanship and gallant endeavour are yearly becoming more remarkable, recall the prophetic vision of Bulwer Lytton in "The Coming Race." Therein he foresaw a future in which only the females of the race were accustomed to fly, while the mundane male kept to the earth. But the seer's imagination failed him in one important particular. His flock of angels were wont to fold up there wings at the call of matrimony; and once married, they never sought to' escape into the empyrean. Lady Bailey and Lady Heath have spoilt that part of the fantasy.