AERONAUTICS: Flights & Flyers: Jun. 30, 1930

Fierro, the Sane. Impetuous young Emilio Carranza crashed to death in a New Jersey storm because he was in a hurry to fly back to his bride in Mexico City (TIME, July 23. 1928). Col. Pablo Sidar, “The Madman,” laughed at bad weather reports and fell into the Caribbean in an attempted flight from Mexico to Buenos Aires (TIME, May 19). Last week Col. Roberto Fierro, cool, cautious, conservative, after days of patient preparation, took off from Roosevelt Field, L. I. and 16 hr. 35 min. later landed on Valbuena Field, Mexico City—first non-stop flight from New York to the Mexican capital.* Mexico was delirious with joy, not alone over the actual feat, but also because the pall of misfortune hanging over Mexican aviation had been pierced.

Col. Fierro and his mechanic, Arnulfo Cortes, flew a low-wing Lockheed-Sirius named Anahuac (Aztec Empire) almost identical to that now flown by the Lindberghs. They scarcely deviated from their predetermined course, landed only 35 min. later than their 16-hr. time allowance.

Record. For years Capt. Frederick H. Becker, expert pilot, agent for Laird Airplane Co. (instructor of Capt. Joseph Medill Patterson and the latter’s daughter Alicia), had not suffered a serious accident. Last week Capt. Becker flew a $25,000 Laird biplane from Roosevelt Field to Poughkeepsie, N. Y., there overshot the field, cracked up. He climbed into another Laird, reached Roosevelt Field 2 hr. after his first takeoff, struck a soft patch of ground, cracked up. Said Capt. Becker, emerging still unhurt from the second wreck: “Well, I guess that’s a record.”

Brock & Schlee. From Detroit and the routine of commerce re-emerged last week Edward Frederick Schlee and William S. Brock (Schlee-Brock Aircraft Corp ), once famed as world flyers (TIME, Sept. 12, 1927). Stepping into a Wasp-powered Lockheed Vega at Jacksonville Beach, Fla. they set a new record of 31 hr. 58 min. elapsed time for round-trip flight across the U. S. Their route to and from San Diego. Calif, was 800 mi. shorter than that (Roosevelt Field, L. I. to Los Angeles) over which Capt. Frank M. Hawks made his record of 36 hr. 48 min. last year. But Flyers Brock & Schlee beat by many hours all previous records over their course.†

*In 1927 Col. Charles Augustus Lindbergh flew non-stop from Washington, D. C. to Mexico City in his Ryan monoplane Spirit of St. Louis, in 27 hr. He lost hours searching for the course from Tampico to Valbuena Field. †August 1920. Maj. Theodore McAuley, San Diego-Jacksonville, 19 hr. 10 min. September 1922, Lieut. James Harold Doolittle, Jacksonville-San Diego, 21 hr. 20 min.