ALTITUDE RECORD

Southland Times, Issue 21821, 26 September 1932, Page 7

ALTITUDE RECORD

BRITISH AIRMAN’S FEAT.

RECOGNITION OF CLAIM.

(British Official Wireless.)

(Rec. 5.5 p.m.) Rugby, September 23. The Royal Aero Club has confirmed the claim of a British airman, Captain Cyril Uwins, to the world’s altitude record. Last week Captain Uwins, who is chief test pilot of the Bristol Aeroplane Company, reached a height of 43,976 ft, well over eight miles, which exceeds the previous world’s record held in the United States by nearly 800 ft.

The machine used was five years old, and before being brought home from China to be reconditioned it lay in flood water for a considerable time at Nanking Aerodrome. A BristolPegasus engine was chosen for the attempt, and Captain Uwins believed he could have flown even higher had not the petrol supply been exhausted. Two sealed barographs placed in the machine before the ascent by the Royal Aero Club were afterwards handed to the National Physical Laboratory for examination. Captain Uwins wore electrically-heated clothes and oxygen apparatus, aid flew through over 100 degrees of frost. Captain Uwins, who sustained a dislocated neck through a war crash, in recent years has done much experimental work in developing aircraft and engines. He was the guest of honour at a luncheon given at Filton Aerodrome.