CLAIM CONFIRMED

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 75, 26 September 1932, Page 7

CLAIM CONFIRMED

WORLD ALTITUDE RECORD

BRITISH PILOTS FEAT

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, 23rd September.

The Eoyal Aero Club has confirmed I tho claim of the British airman, Captain Cyril thrills, to the world altitude record. ":. J! .;"" : -- : "•'.■ V ".■•<•-. ■ ; ■■.. •" Last week Captain TJwins, Who is chief test pilot to the Briatol Aeroplane reached a" height of 43,976' feet, well over eight miles, which exceeded the, previous world record, held by the United States,'by nearly 800»^feet'. The'machine used was five years old, and before being brought home from China and reconditioned lay in. flood water for a considerable time on the Nanking aerodrome. A Bristol Pegasus engine was chosen for the attempt, and Captain TJwins believes that ho could have flown even higher had not his petrol supply been exhausted. .■ ■ / Two sealed barographs placed in his machine before the ascent by the Koyal Aero Club were'afterward handed to the National Physical Laboratory for examination. -The pilot wore electric-ally-heated' clothes^ and used oxygen apparatus, and flew through over 100 degrees of frost.

Captain Uwins, whose neck was dislocated through a war crash, has in recent _ years done much experimental work in developing aircraft and their engines. He was to-day the- guest of honour at a luncheon given at Klton Aerodrome. ■ s- -