SOLO ATLANTIC FLIGHT

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27502, 9 November 1954, Page 13

SOLO ATLANTIC FLIGHT

Lindbergh's Record Beaten By 11 Hours

(Rec. 7 p.m.) PARIS, Nov. 7. Max Conrad, the 50-year-old father of 10 children, today reached Paris after a 22-hour non-stop solo flight from New York, breaking by 11 hours the solo record set up by Colonel Charles Lindbergh mdre than 20 years

ago. z Conrad left New York at 4.26 p.m. G.M.T. yesterday, in a light twoengined plane, saying he hoped to reach Paris in '3 to 22 hours. He carried enough fuel for 26 hours flying. Conrad taxied his cream-and-red aircraft on to the runway at Toussuss-le-Noble, outside Paris, exactly 22 hours 19 minutes after leaving Idlewild Airport, New' York. The 3000-mile flight

was made across a snow and rainswept Atlantic. Conrad, who strongly resembles the film actor, Gary Cooper, was greeted by cries of admiration from women who rushed across the tarmac to embrace him as he climbed out of his plane. Conrad, a vetera. i of 30,000 flying hours, was making his fourth solo Atlantic crossing. He said he flew most of the way at 11,000 feet, “but I had to do some wave-hopping when ice became bad at night.”

He was delivering the plane, a Piper Apache, to a foreign buyer as the first of a series of this type of four-seater machine built by an American company to popularise private flying in Europe. The Piper Apache, constructed entirely of metal, is powered by two 160 horse-power engines and can cruise at 170 miles an hour.

A’l Conrad had on the trip was a bottle of so_*t drink. He said: “It turned out much better than I expected, in spite of continuous snow and ice throughout a long, sleepless night. I had only 500 miles of perfect weather immediately after the take-off. “First thing I want to do is get some food. Petrol leaked out on to the packet of biscuits I brought with me, and I didn’t have anything to eat at

aU.” Conrad was surprised that aeroplanes had been alerted to look for him when contact between his aircraft and ground was lost during the night “I sent only one message myself as I was passing over Shannon this morning. I did not know that people were worrying about me,” he said. Conrad plans to spend a few days in Paris before returning to the United states by sea.