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Show ENGLISH LEAD. : ALL AVIATORS 1 1 a Poor Flying Weather Keeps AH but the Hardiest Bird Men on the Earth. GRAHAME-WHITE AHEAD IN INTERNATIONAL MEET Heavy Wind and Dense Fog Handicaps Contestants at Belmont Park. By Associated Press. NEW YORK, Oct. 22. Claude Gra-hame-White, the Englishman, took first place In the distance contest and In the totalization of duration at tho International Interna-tional aviation meet at Bolmont park to-. day; an American, Hoxsey. of the Wright team, soaring highest Into the scudding mist: and another American, John B. Molssant of Chicago, was the only contestant con-testant who cared to take chances on a twenty-mile croBS-country flight Into' the teeth of the wind and with tho fog so thick that he could not seo the ground after he rose 150 feet. Molssant's flight was a second demonstration demon-stration both his own of the fact that an airman, Hko a seaman, can steer by compass, without regard to the timo of day or; night, foul weather or fair. As on his trip from Paris to London, he steered wholly by compass. In point of fact, Molssant, as observed, covered probably three miles more than the course, although he Is not credited with tho excess. Only Six Try to Fly. No records were broken today; it was a sufficient triumph to fly at all In a persistent per-sistent fine rain, drlvon ' by a steady twelve-mlle east wind. Only bIx of the twenty-nine aviators at tho park attempted at-tempted to fly. Grahamo-Whlte, In a steady Farman biplane, keeping close to tho ground and cutting tho corners with workmanlike precision, piled up twenty laps In two successive hours, flying for distance only. He was just two hours In the air, and the official scorers credited him with fifty kilometers 31.07 miles for each hour. Molssant was second with fourteen laps for the first hour and fifteen for the second, sec-ond, respectively, 21.75 miles and 23.3 miles. Ho started late, and although he gained In the straightaways, he lost at the turns, and In the first hour was penalized four laps for cutting corners Inside the pylons. Hoxsey Up in the Air. None of the Wright team tried for distance, but Johnstone had engine trouble trou-ble and Hoxsey cvldontly found the currents cur-rents up above the fog too wild, for ho rjulckly settled from a height of 742 feet to more modest levels. Ely of the Cur-tl8s Cur-tl8s team also tried hi. luck' at height and took second placo for the first hour, with 104 foot. Hoxsey ' tried it again in the second hour and did worse 673 feet this time. Count de Lessens made 62S feet. J. Armstrong Drcxcl S19 feet, and Ely. on another trial. 20S feet. None of thorn liked it much up above. In tho main It was a contest between the monoplane and tho biplane, with the monoplane the swifter and the biplane bi-plane the steadier. None of the gnome revolving engines missed once during tho day, whereas the American vertical and oblique thrust four and eight-cylinder engines en-gines were all more or less troubled with faulty ignition. The altitude, distance and duration figures fig-ures made today entitle the first, second and third place men to dally cash prlzoa and will count In the percentage distribution distri-bution of the profits at tho end of tho nlno dayB meet. Files Against Wind. But one aviator dared the elements of tho early morning and ventured flight. This was Captain Thomas Baldwin. Tlo arrived In hla fifty-horsepower Curtles aeroplane, the "Red Devil," at Belmont Park race track from the Garden City aviation field, where his aeroplane has been quartered. Tho manner of hl3 coming was sensational. sensa-tional. He flew In the head of a northwest north-west wind In six minutes from the Garden Gar-den City field at the rate of more than a mile a minute. His eyes wore swollen, he having forgotten for-gotten his goggles. The flight was tho socond across countrv for tho meet. Prlsblo making a similar one lost nights .Only Accident of Meet. In tho morning the wind huuled into the northeast. Ted Shrlver, in a Dlelz biplane, storied to mako a shorL 'flight In tho face of a twi-mllc wind. Ho rose to a height of 100 feet and flew to the grand stand, then swerved and flow eastward Into tho eye of the wind. When directly over the spot whero Radley and Molssant wore wrecked, which Is known as "dead man's turn," the wind suddenly sud-denly struck tho light biplane, made It dip and list badly to the right. Shrlvor pulled tho aeroloons. but the machine would not right. When fifty feet from the ground tho biplane righted, but tho strain caused something to give "way, and the machine plunged to the ground. Shrlver was burled boncalh tho wreckage wreck-age nnd from the stand It looked ns If ho was killed- He uroso, however, cut on the nose, check and eyelid. He suffered suf-fered no serious Injuries, but the bl-plano bl-plano and engine were demolished. After hnvlng, his wounds dressed, Shrlver went home. END .LEAD AVIATION biplane, but It lms novcr been tried out to tilts limit, . and even lis owner does not know Just what it will do under pressure. He believes it very fast. John B. Molssant smashed his. Blerlot racer last Monday, but Ib busy rebuilding It. J. Armstrong Drexol will uIbo fly American Amer-ican machines. France Monds Leon Mo-rano. Mo-rano. who how holdo all speed records for ono kilometer up to seventy-eight mllns; Hubert Latham, with his beautiful, beauti-ful, erratic, dragon fly Antoinette monoplane; mono-plane; Alfred Lo Blanc, the champion cross-country flyer; Emll Aubrun, his pupil: pu-pil: Count Jacques do licaseps. tho second sec-ond aviator to cross tho English channel, chan-nel, and such lesser celebrities aa Barrier. Bar-rier. Garros. Audcmare and Simon, some of whom fly tho tiny "demoiselles," tho humming birds among aeroplanes. England' sends Claude Grahame-Whltc.. who toolt first honors at Boston In tho recent Harvard meet; James Radley, .Ogllvle and McArdle. all representing the Royal Aero club of the United Kingdom. Monoplano Conspicuous. The definite arrival of tho monoplane Is one of tho most notlceablo features of the meet. Preponderance of tho machines aro Blerlot monoplanes and tho new models of both tho Wrights and of Curtlss are also practically "single surface" pianos. The latest doslgnu have a compactness, solidity and refinement of construction construc-tion which tells for themselves that the aeroplano has passed out of the string and kindling wood stago of mero contrivance con-trivance ana has now becomo a working, mechanical actuality. They look taut, powerful and swift proper Instruments of man's extended domination over the elements. |