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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 0004.PDF
FLIGHT, 5 January 1950 HIGHEST, FASTEST, FARTHEST World's Air Records as They Stand To-day : United States and Russia Stilt Hold the Largest Share A Ghost-powered D.H. Vampire Mk.l established the alti- tude record for powered aircraft. Lockheed P2V-I—holder of the straight line distance record since 1946. The North Ameri- can F-86 has earned the official title of the world's fastest aircraft. Is" reviewing international air records as homologated States—by the Sikorsky R-5A and the newer S.5Z-1. by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale up to One or two events of the past two vears present brighter • the end of 1949, it is once again regrettable that in the majority of classes the name of Great Britain seldom appears" The acknowledged excellence of British aircraft makes it anomalous that, out of some 80-odd unlimited and class records for powered aircraft only four are at present credited to this country; that no balloon or airship records are held is probably of no great consequence. That Britain has attempted so few international records in recent years is almost certainly due pri- marily to the great expense that such ventures involve, and to their inevitable interference with development programmes. America and Russia remain the moSt prominent amongst the record-holders, having achieved their successes in most cases with standard or slightly modified mili tary aircraft. The American B-29 still holds a large proportion of the weight-carrying records — a fact which prompts the thought that a British aircraft, the Can berra, would be capable of very considerably raising the speed figures in the class lor aircraft carrying a load of up to 5,000 kg. That the lists as they stand are not a true reflection of technical progress is evidenced by the fact that many of the hydraviun records are still held by pre-war Italian aircraft ; had two of the three Saro A.i flying boats not met with unfortunate accidents these particular figures might have looked very ' different by this time. All helicopter records are at present held in the United "ABSOLUTE" RECORDS Straight-line distance (United States).—Cdrs. Davies, Rankin, Reid and Tabeling, U.S.N. (Lockheed P2V-I). Perth, Australia, to Columbus, Ohio, Sept. 29th-Oct. 1st, 1946. 18,081.990 km (11,237 miles). Altitude (United States).—Capt. O. A. Anderson and Capt. Albert W. Stevens (4,000 cu m balloon), Nov. llth, 1935. 22,066 m (72,395ft). Speed at Low Level (United States).— Maj. R. L Johnson, U.S.A.F. (North American F-86), Sept. 15th, 1948. 1,079.841 km/hr (670.981 m.p.h.). spots in this rather gloomy picture. There was, for instance, the breaking of the world's heavier-than-air height record by John Cunningham with a Ghost-powered Vampire I, which achieved a height of 18,119 m (59,445ft) in March, 1948. In 1948, too, John Derry captured the " speed over 100 km" title for Britain with the extremely creditable figure of 974 km/hr (605.23 m.p.h..) in the D.H. 108. Maximum speed at low level, however, still stands to the credit of the United States with Major Richard Johnson's flight in the North American F-86 at 1,080 km/hr (670.981 m.p.h.). During 1949 the only successful record attempts of any signifi- cance were the 7,978 km (4,957 miles) flight by William C. Odom in the Beech Bonanza from Hono- lulu to Teterboro, New Jersey, which captured for America the light-aircraft distance-in-a- straight-line record in two cate- gories ; Madame du Peyxon's flight of 5,932 km (3,686 miles) in the Morane-Saulnier monoplane from Mont-de-Marsan to Jiwani in Baluchistan, an exceptional performance for an aircraft with an engine in the 4-6.5 cubic-litre capacity category; the breaking of the absolute height record for gliders by J. Robinson of the United States, who achieved an altitude of 10,211 m (33,497ft) ; and a flight by Guy Marchand in the Nord 2000, which gained for France the duration record for single-seat sail- planes with a flight of 40 hr 51 min. Another notable achievement was that of Rene Leduc, who ascended to
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