KING'S CUP AIR RACE

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22196, 13 September 1937, Page 9

KING'S CUP AIR RACE

I GARDNER WINS FOR , SECOND TIME j EXCITING FINISH SEEN AT HATFIELD ! > RECORD TIME BY AUSTRALIAN . j COMPETITOR »j , ! (UNITED rr.E.-JS ASSOCIATION-—COI'VKIGHT.) (Received September 12, 10 p.m.) LONDON, September 11. The King's Cup air race was won by C. Gardner, who flew from Dublin at an estimated average speed of 240 miles an hour. Brigadier-General A. C. Lcwin, flying a Miles Whitney, was second. The Australian, Pcrcival, was third, and A. V. Harvey, flying a Miles Whitney, was fourth. Gardner was also last year's winner. He flew at an average speed of 233.7 miles an hour, a record for the winning aeroplane. Gardner figured in one of the closest finishes ever seen in the King's Cup contest. He, with Percival and Waller, was among the back-markers, leaving Dublin nearly two hours behind the long-handi-capped machines. Gardner overtook the leaders 10 miles from the finish. He had just swooped past the winning post at a terrific speed when Lewin, who is 63 years of age, and was flying his first King's Cup race, and Harvey, emerged from the clouds. Lewin was only seconds ahead of Harvey, who appeared certain of third place, when Percival came down in a fierce rush, beating Harvey on the post. Percival flew at an average speed . of 238.7 miles aii hour, a record for the contest.

Schreiber finished sixth, with an average speed of 171 miles an hour. Waller was twelfth at a speed of 213 miles an hour. Broadbent retired after a mishap to his retracting undercarriage. Percival left Dublin 364 seconds after Gardner, and finished at Hatfield only 153 seconds behind him. I lie won £2OO for the fastest time in j the high-powered class at the conj elusion of the first day's flight. Porci- | val's speed was 225.i miles an hour j TWO COMPETITORS | KILLED I AEROPLANE CRASHES DURING SQLALL LONDON, September 10. Wing Commander E. G. Hilton, flying a Miles Falcon, and accompanied by Wing Commander Percy Sherran, crashed at Scarborough on the first stage in the King's Cup air race. Both were killed. Some of the New Zealand cricketers saw the crash. An eye-witness says that a squall caught Hi.ton's machine and lifted lit up 50 feet, whirling it round. Spectators were horror-stricken when a man was thrown through the roof of the cockpit, somersaulted in the air, 1 and fell on the roof of a disused cafe. The other occupant's decapitated j body was found shattered in the j cockpit. i Two other competitors made i forced landings. i . I AIR FORCE BOMBER CRASHES YEAR'S DEATH-ROLL REACHES 101 (Received September 12, 11.30 p.m.) LONDON, September 12. A Royal Air Force bomber, attempting to land in heavy rain, crashed on a hillside at Gainsborough. Four were killed. This is the sixty-second Royal Air Force accident in 1937, in which there have been 101 deaths.