Young Pilot Picked For RAF Height Record Bid

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 211, 7 September 1936, Page 3

Young Pilot Picked For RAF Height Record Bid

DARING VENTURES ALL IN THE DAY’S WORK A young and daring U.A.F. pilot i.< now at Faranboruugfl undergoing tests to prove liis litness to make tor Britain aii attempt on ttie stratosphere height record of 47,380 leel field by Italy. There was nothing spectacular or sensational about the way the K.A.F. chose the young liver, who has a chance of putting his name into world newspaper headlines. Other countries might have called for volunteers for the dangerous project. Not so the R.A.F.; it does not believe in such methods. The flyer was picked because ho showed he had the necessary skili and nerve and judgment for the job. This stratosphere flying is just regarded as a perfectly normal Service assignment. The man who undertakes it must be able to withstand the rarelied atmosphere of 50,000 feet or so up. From the beginning it was decreed that while this record-breaking bid would bo taken very seriously, because it might increase British prestige, it' was nothing more than an interlude in the Air Force expansion programme.