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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0986.PDF
25 May 1951 THE WORLD'S SPEED RECORD Its History from the Earliest Days: An Opportunity for Britain to Regain It? By H. J. COOPER BEFORE 1905, when the Federation AeronautiqueInternationale was formed, there were no officiallyapproved international aeroplane records: designers and pilots were more concerned with getting their machines into the air at all without bothering about outstanding performances. But three years after Wilbur Wright first flew at Kittyhawk, simultaneously establishing distance, height and speed records, performances had increased sufficiently for a healthy spirit of competition to develop between pilots. On its formation, the F.A.I, devised rules which had to be complied with before a performance m the air could be officially confirmed as a record. From time to time various amendments have been made to the rules and new categories introduced so that records have, in fact, become a useful measure of practical performance. Gradually the freak aircraft, built or modified solely to achieve a particular performance and having no useful purpose, has become less prominent in the official record list, and, in point of fact, the world speed record today is held by an aircraft which differs only in detail from its standard Service version. The first records to be confirmed by the F.A.I, were set up by Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian aviation pioneer, who went to France to experiment with airships and aeroplanes. His records were for distance in a closed circuit and for speed, and were set up on November 12th, 1906. These early records were not established in quite the same way as they would be today. To begin with, speed records up to 1909 were not flown over a course of any specified length; often the course coincided with the maximum range of the aeroplane making the attempt, which in some cases was not more than half a mile. By 1909 the range of aeroplanes had increased sufficiently for them to be timed over closed-circuit courses of 10, 20, 30 km and so on. Records were further divided into categories such as "pilot only" and "pilot and one passenger." The first pilot to establish a world speed record at over 100 m.p.h. was the Frenchman Jules Vedrines, who attained 170.777 km/hr in his Deperdussin at Rheims on July 13th, 1912. At the beginning of the 1914-18 war the speed record stood at 203.850 km/hr (126.67 m.p.h.). It had been set up by Maurice Provost (who had won the first Schneider Trophy Contest in 1913) flying a D^perdussin monoplane powered by a 160-h.p. Gn6me engine. While the war was on no further attempts could be made, but it was evident that speeds and performances generally were greatly increasing. By the time manufacturers and pilots were able to resume sporting flying (in which category record attempts then •JF (Left) The first pilot to achieve a world record at over 100 m.p.h.— Jules Vedrines, who flew at I06S m.p.h. at Rheims in 1912. In the nineteen-twenties the record was successively held by a number of Schneider Cup seaplanes. On the right is Maj. di Rernardi's Macchi M.52, first aircraft to exceed 300 m.p.h.; this'Tin 19^ "Flight" photographs Record in the making: The F-86 (Maj. R. L. Johnson), holder of the present record of 670.981 m.p.h., being timed over the 3 km course at Muroc in September, 1948. really belonged), speeds had risen so much that a closed circuit was not considered suitable for recording the maximum speed, which could only be attained over a straight line course without any turning-points. The F.A.I, accordingly specified a one- kilometre course in a straight line, which had to be flown once in each direction, and the average speed of the two nights was accepted as die record speed. It was a condition that an aircraft making an attempt on the 1 km speed record should not land during the attempt, and had to make two safe landings shortly before. With two exceptions, all world speed records from 1906 to 1912 had been accredited to France. Although Glenn Curtiss had set up a new speed record during the Gordon Bennett Race Meeting at Rheims in 1909, flying one of his own designs, the honour went to France, as at that time the record was credited to the country wherein the attempt was made. The first speed record credited to America was in fact made by a Frenchman, Henri Leblanc, who in 1910 flew his Bleriot monoplane at 109.756 km/hr in New York. Now, of course, records are credited to the nationality of the pilot. At the end of the 1914-18 war the fastest aircraft was generally considered to be the B.A.T. Bantam, a British single-seat fighter biplane designed by Fritz Koolhoven and reputed to do 138 m.p.h., 12 m.p.h. faster than die pre-war record. But no official record was in fact established until 1920, when the Frenchman Sadi Lecointe flew a Nieuport 29 biplane at 275.264 km/hr (143 m.p.h.). "The next eight records, made witiiin two and a half years, were all held by French pilots. Lecointe was the first man to reach 200 m.p.h., which he did in September, 1921. The kilometre course was the official distance for an absolute speed attempt for five years after the war. Then the F.A.I., at its annual conference held in Rome in October, 1922, decided to increase the course to 3 km so as to provide more accurate means of timing. This longer course had to be flown twice in each direction. Officially this rule did not come into effect until April 1st, 1923, although Lt. R. L. Maugham of the U.S. Navy, in his successful attempt on March 19th, 1923, flew over this longer course. Great keenness developed in America with the production of the Curtiss Navy and Army racing biplanes, and at the St. Louis International Meeting in October, 1923, a duel developed be- tween Lts. H. J. Brow and A. J. Williams to gain the highest speed. As soon as one of them beat the record the other managed to raise it still higher, until finally Williams flew at 429.025 km/hr on November 4th, 1923. After that the U.S. Navy Department prohibited high-speed flights as they considered that the limit of human endurance had been reached ! They have since modified their opinion. Successive records were so numerous that they were often beaten before they could be officially confirmed, and generally were not very much better than the previous records. At the F.A.I. Conference in Paris in January, 1924, it was decided that
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