SCOTT WINS AGAIN.

Western Star, 2 October 1936, Page 3

SCOTT WINS AGAIN.

JOHANNESBURG AIR RACE. JUST OVER TWO DAYS. LLEWELLYN CRASHES WHEN LEADING. LONDON, October 1. Mr C. W. A. Scott, the English aviator who won the Melbourne centenary air race, repeated his triumph when he flagged in at Johannesburg at 12.36 p.m. to-day to win the speed contest which began from the Portsmouth aerodrome at dawn on Tuesday. Mr Scott, who piloted a Percival Vega Gull, recorded a flying time of 52hr 54min for the 6500 miles.

Mr D. Llewellyn was well ahead of Mr Scott when he crashed in southern Tanganyika. Thus Mr K. Waller, who is delayed in Kenya, will probably finish second.

“It is wonderful,” said Mr Scott’s wife. “I am very proud of ‘Scotty,’ and am looking forward to welcoming him.” Mr Giles Guthrie, Mr Scott’s companion, the youngest competitor in the race, ■'is ■ the 20-year-old son of Sir Connop Guthrie and an' undergraduate at Cambridge. He received special permission to compete, and had flown several thousand miles in Britain.

Mr Scott completed the flight in 19hr 28min less than Mrs J. A. Mollison’s re-cord-breaking flight to Cape Town. She, however, flew by a different route. Mr Llewellyn arrived in the neighbourhood of Abercorn (Northern Rhodesia) yesterday evening and cruised for an hour seeking the aerodrome, which he was unable to find because of great clouds of smoke drifting all over the countryside from grass fires. Finally his petrol ran out and he crashed at Myulongu, at the southern end of Lake Tanganyika. Mr Waller was delayed by severe storms between Juba (Kenya) and Kiusumu (Kenya). Scott landed at Abercorn at 12.30 p.m., yesterday. He was very tired, and slept until 2 a.m. He took off at 4.45 on a non-stop “hop” to Johannesburg, and flew over Bulawayo at 8.30, having covered the 6251 miles to Abercorn at an average speed of 173 miles an hour.

9£ MILES ABOVE ENGLAND. ALTITUDE RECORD BY R.A.F PILOT. ANXIOUS TIME DURING DESCENT, NARROW ESCAPE FROM SUFFOCATION. RUGBY, September 30. A dramatic story was told of his ex'perienco in the upper air by SquadronLeader Swayne, a test pilot of the experimental section of the Royal Air Force establishment at Farnborqugh, who has been personally congratulated by his Majesty the King and the Secretary for Air (Viscount Swinton) on the success of his flight of 3hr 20min. in which the world’s altitude record was captured on Monday. It was v the Royal Air Force’s first, attempt on the record, and by reaching the height of 49,967 ft (over nine and a-half miles) Squadron-Leader Swayne out-distanced the previous record, established last month by a French pilot, bv 1296 ft.

The great- achievement was • accomplished by a specially designed Bristol 138 open- aeroplane, fitted with a Pegasus engine; the fuselage is of monococque construction, rounded in front and rectangular in the rear. With a wing span of 66ft it is one of the largest singleengined aeroplanes ever built. The pilot, who was encased and helmeted in a sealed flying suit to give him warmth and oxygen in the rarefied upper air, says that the most critical .moment in the flight occurred during the descent, when he began to feel suffocated, -

SHORT OF OXYGEN. “I had the impression that I was getting short of oxygen, and, I was gradually feeling weaker. I pressed the release lever, which should have opened tho cockpit cover, but that failed to function ; I tried the zip cord attached to my suit for such an emergency, but could not find the fastener. Over my suit I was wearing fighting harness aud parachute harness. I had to get my head clear of my helmet, as I was gradually getting weaker, and the only thing to do was to cut open the window of my helmet with a clasp-knife. I had great difficulty in doing this because I was feeling so weak, buti with a_ final effort I thrust the knife through and slit the window, tearing it off with my hand. As soon as the fresh air got in I felt better. I found that I was then 14,000 ft up over Yeovil (Somerset).” Describing the view as he looked down from 46,000 ft, Squadron-Leader Swayne says: “I could see the whole English south coast from Margate to Land’s End, and north almost as far as The Wash. London looked like a toy town, and the Thames like a piece of narrow ribbon. South, I could see the coast of France and the Channel Islands, looking like small stones in the bed of a river. 1 felt small and lonely, and had the impression that England was a very snntl place.”

HAILE SELASSIE AND ITALY. HINT OF ABDICATION AS BARGAIN. RETENTION OF PARTS OF ABYSSINIA. LONDON, September 30. The quick wits at Geneva scented a hint of Haile Selassie’s abdication in the speech of the Abyssinian delegate, M. Taezaz. at. the Assembly of the League of Nations. M. Taozaz said that to save human lives and maintain an independent home for the people Haile Selassie must now regard himself as bound to consent to the sacrifice of his rights guaranteed under the Covenant. . The Abvssinian Legation in London promptly denied that Haile Selassie had any intention of abdicating. It huei amplified its announcement to the effect that Haile Selassie, while never giving up his sovereignty, was always willing to make sacrifices for the purpose of accord with Italy. Any idea of Haile Selassie bargaining with Italy for a retention of parts of lus former unoccupied territory is 'dismissed as ridiculous in Ropm-

Hitler is reported to have spent an afternoon with a mind-reader.—Three ],mil's fifty-five minutes to locate the mind and five minutes to read it.

‘Manv people never know- where their next cheque is coming from,’ according to a writer And too many of them never know when their last cheque is coming baok.