AMAZING AIR ADVENTURE

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXXI, Issue LXXXI, 14 May 1920, Page 5

AMAZING AIR ADVENTURE

FALL FROM A RECORD HEIGHT. * " c

Major R. W. Schroeder, chief test--pilot at Dayton (Ohio), recently aflcended to the record heignt ot 36,202 ieet (nearly seven miles), then''tainted and' tell over five miles in a sheer nose dive * yet lives to tell the tale. \< Major Schroeder came within seven *'•' seconds of being dashed to death1, but his subconscious sense, his brotheromcers say, must have saved him when 2000 feet above the earth, for he Blade x " a perfect landing. Whetf lifted from x the machine, where he "was apparently lifeless, the airman' 6 eyeballs arid lids were frozen, and h:« * heart thundering in pulsations which were noticeable through his thick flyin? clothes. In the hospital, where thedoctors expressed the hope, that he ~ , would regain his sight in a few days,' Major Schroeder told the. following re markable tale: * - "I was thinking of notEing but attaining a height of 40,000 feet t which 1 knew to be possible, when the oxygen suddenly ceased to flow. I leaned for- * ward and turned the cock wide 'open, but no oxygen made. Realising that' something was wrong, I raised my goggles, which were coated with ice \ within and without, just to see whether "* I had fully opened the tank -contain-, ing my emergency supply. All at one«sit seemed as though a terrific explosion had taken place inside my head. My eyes hurt terribly. I could hot open. them. I seemed to be peeping, through* ' ,■> a crack. There was a tremendous rush - j of air, and I seemed to be falling. I--think I must have pulled hard on tha* stick, because I knew 1 must straighten out for the glide, and the machineappeared to1 ride easily. Again-! open- * | ed my eyes and saw the Wilbur Wright j field and the hangars.* I could not land j there, and I was afraid my eyes, would fail. I tilted the machine for a climb, ~ intending to make sure of a good altitude, and then jump for' it with a parachute, because I knew this could ,'be done with eyes "closed. At that"instant McOook'e field came in sight. I'Vlo not remember landing. I had no sense of «, fear. I knew only of the pain in my > eyes and the awful explosion in my head." '

Major Schroeder's.clothes werer'electrically heated., »For two hours he kept the machme at the steepest possible ;: angle. His thermometer showed that. >~ he flew in a temperature of 55degr be- -$ low zero. Army officers' who ;calibrated.^ the barographs say that Major Schroeder reached a- height 3000 feet higher than the previous altitude re-, ='• cord. .•■-"'..-■>' "r -:; .