Flights & Flyers

Grover C. (amphibians) Loening, first man to get a degree for aeronautical research (M. A., Columbia), wished a thrill last week, strapped a parachute to his back, went up in a Stearman over Roosevelt Field, L. I., at 2,000 feet jumped, and landed grinning.

Flying Governor. Governor George Alexander Parks of Alaska was at Juneau when he made up his mind to see his niece (he is unmarried), Mary Catherine Thompson, graduated from Mills College, Oakland, Cal., last Monday. So he jumped into an Alaska Airways Lockheed-Vega and made the 1,800-mi. trip in 20 1/2, hours, first air passenger to accomplish it in so short a time.*

On the Edge. Four planes & crews were on the edges of the continents last week waiting, preparing to fly across the stormy Atlantic. One actually started and failed, perhaps only temporarily, when part way over.

The initiator was the Swedish seaplane Sverige, a Junkers like the Bremen of past fame. The Sverige's crew were Captain Albin Ahrenberg, Lieut. Axel Flodin and Mechanic Robert Ljunglund. Their course was to include stops at Stockholm (Sweden), Reykjavik (Iceland), Ivigtut (Greenland), Anticosti Island (Quebec), New York. Last week the Swedes got to Reykjavik, where a broken oil line forced their premature landing and delayed, at least, their completing the trip.

Meanwhile there waited for good weather--as they have waited for weeks-- at Old Orchard, Me., U. S. flyers Roger Williams and Lewis Yancey, and French flyers Rene Lefevre, Jean Assolant and Armeno Lotti Jr.; and at Seville, Spain, French flyers Louis Coudouret and Louis Mallou.

Attempted Theft. The Roma is the huge Bellanca sesquiplane which C. Sabelli was to fly to Rome last year. But her size and fame were no deterrents to six presumed thieves who last week audaciously attempted to take her from her hangar at Wilmington, Del. Bellanca guards forewarned by telephone frustrated the attempt and pleased George Haldeman, co-pilot of Ruth Elder's trans-Atlantic flight, now Bellanca's chief test pilot, who privately plans to fly the Roma whither publicity abounds.

New World Record

A new world air record made last week: Altitude for seaplane--Lieut. Apollo Soucek (U. S. N.), in a wasp-powered Wright Apache, 38,560 ft., at Washington; surpassing Lieut. C. C. Champion's (U. S. N.) 37,995 ft.

* Famed as flying governors are John H. Trumbull (Conn.), Walter J. Kohler (Wisconsin), John Hammill (Iowa), Harry S. Leslie (Indiana), Harry Flood Byrd (Virginia). Governor Fred Warren Green (Michigan) also flies frequently. U. S. Senator Hiram Bingham (Connecticut) is the only Senator who flies frequently. None of President Hoover's Cabinet flies often. Recently Secretaries Adams (Navy), Lament (Commerce) and Davis (Labor) have gone up. Secretary Davis said that he would buy a plane, could he afford it.