Aeronautics: Bennett Balloons

Bennett Balloons

Still in doubt until the end of last week was the outcome of the James Gordon Bennett International Balloon Race (TIME, Sept. 11). By virtue of landing methodically at Branford, Conn., 750 mi. from Chicago, Lieut.-Commander Thomas G. W. (“Tex”) Settle, pilot of the Navy bag and winner of last year’s race from Basle, Switzerland, was far in the lead. Then out of the wilds of Quebec, bearded and exhausted, trudged the Polish entrants, Captain Francizek Hynek and Lieut. Zbigniev Burzynski. They had descended about 102 mi. northeast of Rivére Á. Pierre, followed moose paths and bashed through thick forests to Lemieux on the railroad. Their flight was estimated at about 1,050 mi. (The record is 1,354 mi.)

Everybody feared that another missing bag, the Goodyear XI carrying Frank A. Trotter and Ward Tunte Van Orman, might have been blown into the Atlantic. For Pilot Van Orman, champion of two Bennett races and a veteran of many others, it would not have been strange to find himself at sea. Once in a European race he was carried out in the dead of night, signaled a passing steamer with a flashlight, alighted safely on deck.

More than a week passed before a lineman discovered the last missing team between Sudbury and Abitibi Canyon in Northern Ontario. Grounded in a thunderstorm about 550 mi. from the start, Balloonists Trotter & Van Orman had plunged through the bush until they stumbled on power lines of Ontario Hydro-Electric Co. Shrewdly they had chopped down a pole, knowing that soon a lineman would be sent to repair the break. On the stump they left a note saying that they were following the line south. Finding the note the lineman hurried after, found them huddled in a shanty, their clothes shredded and shoes worn through, wretched with ptomaine poisoning from a can of beans. Few hours later the Polish team knew that they would carry the Bennett Cup back to Warsaw.