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Show ! RALPH DE PALMA, NOTED RACER, SAYS I SPEEDING IN AIRPLANE LACKS THRILLS j t W f&Sr&i jf t3 ! I i De Palma Prefers Motoring to Flying. Ralph De Palma thinks there are more thrills In auto racing than in flying fly-ing in an airplane. One day last fall, while De Palma was serving as director direc-tor of flying at McCook field, near Dayton, Day-ton, O., an aviation officer invited him to take a trip in his plane. The motor star accepted. He was somewhat new at flying then, and also dubious. But a director of flying is supposed to fly. "Want to do a few stunts?" asked the officer, when De Palma was safely strapped In. "A nice question !" commented com-mented De Palma, afterward. "There was only one answer we did them !" Service Was Brief. De Palma's service in aviation was brief, as he enlisted acouple of months before the war ended. But It lasted long enough to give him a well-rounded experience in flying, both in the stunts which might be compared to the thrills of the speedway, and long distance flying, which is comparable to the long grind of automobile road racing. And the veteran star lost no time in getting get-ting back to his own game, firm in the conviction that it heats aviation for thrills. "Flying seemed monotonous compared with motor racing," he said in speaking of his air trip. Lonesome Work. "On a trip of several hundred miles you may be making speeds which would be terrific in an auto 140 miles an hour. But at the height of a mile or more you have no realization ot speed, and sitting up there in the wind and noise is lonesome work. The stunts are more exciting, of course but there is no competition, no audience, audi-ence, no applause. Hurdling over the ground at Daytona Beach In a racing car at two and one-half miles per minute, min-ute, with 50-foot leaps from the ground, or whirling around the Indianapolis Indian-apolis Motor Speedway track In the 500-mile race, with competitors contesting con-testing every lap that's very different stuff f "Every minute has its problem and its thrill. I prefer to be down on the ground, smelling the gas, eating the dirt, In contact with my rivals and the crowd." |