Aeronautics: Second Highest?

Gentle, spindly Auguste Piccard has twice explored his beloved stratosphere ten miles above Earth—highest man has ever gone. Last week a man who wears a metal band to support his head because his neck was broken flying in the War nearly intruded upon frail Professor Piccard’s rarefied kingdom. In a specially lightened Bull Pup plane powered with a 550-h. p. Pegasus motor. Chief Test Pilot Cyril Unwins of Britain’s Bristol Aeroplane Co., Ltd., soared 45,000 ft.— more than eight miles above the Severn Valley. Classified as an “interceptor” in the Royal Air Force, the British fighting pursuit plane, equipped for service, has a ceiling of 28,000 ft. Pilot Unwins had to wait until his barograph was recalibrated to the barometric pressure prevailing that day before his record would be official. Present plane altitude record of 43,166 ft. was set by Lieut. Apollo Soucek, U. S. N. in 1930. Wearing electrically-heated goggles. gloves, shoes and clothing. Pilot Unwins encountered a temperature of 68° below zero. He was equipped with oxygen breathing apparatus. At the top of his climb the gasoline ran out. Pilot Unwins volplaned safely to a ploughed field.