Ke Alakai o Hawaii, Volume VI, Number 8, 22 June 1933 — PILOI CLLMBS TO NEW HEIGHT IN ENGLISH PLANE [ARTICLE]

PILOI CLLMBS TO NEW HEIGHT IN ENGLISH PLANE

When Capt. C. F. Uwins, Britr | ish aviator, recently climbed to $ j height of 43,076 feet above earth over Bristol, he not established a. new altitude reQ-' ord for airplanes, but acccxm-. plished the remarkable feat' in a stocK plane in whieh few alteraittons had been made in preparatlōn for t-he attempt. Tfre ship was a Vickers twō seater biplane with 576 square f#et ol wing area, and the power piant was a supercharged feol radial air-coTled engine. The craft Was converted into a singlē : seater, the fnel tank being instatled in the front compartmeht, and the regular wing tahfc removed. The compression ratio otf the engifie was changed from three to one to seven to one, the s«percharger was enlarged a nsw motor mounting in,stalled. ;'

Driveoa. off the engiiie, rabed afc 525 hQrsepcwer. at 11,000 xeet at 2,660 revohit«ms per minute, was a geiaerator to furnish current lor the electrieally heated pilot-s elOi i the lens of his goggles, aud the regulating vaives of his oxygen-breathing apparatus. If tlie generator faiied, a 12-volt. battery was in reserve. Four cyiinders of oxygen wers„ carried. A sealed barograph waa caxried in a special shock-proof £ranie.