Newton Press September 4 1931
Holds Worlds Air Record
Lowell Bayles Set New Speed Mark at National air races
Lowell Bayles, a son of Mr. and Mrs. R.E. Bayles of this city, is now the holder of the
unofficial world’s airplane speed record for land planes, at this dispatch to Wednesday’s
metropolitan paper tells:
Cleveland Ohio, September 1- Lowell Bayles, dark-haired and tanned flyer from
Springfield, Massachusetts, tonight had the unofficial distinction of being the world’s
speediest land plane pilot, and planned later this week to make the distinction official.
By the grace of a twenty-mile wind and his tiny Gee Bee low-wing monoplane, Bayles
attained a speed of 286 miles an hour on a mile straightaway, in a tryout for the
Thompson trophy race, at the national air races Tuesday. The worlds record is 178.8
miles an hour.
Flying four times with and against the wind over the straightaway, he averaged 207.342
miles an hour, more than one mile an hour faster than the American record of Lieutenant
Al Williams former navy pilot. To make his speed an official world record, Bayles, transport
pilot with more than 3500 flying hours, will have a barograph installed in his plane and a
three-kilometer course marked off. To break a record he must top it by approximately five
miles an hour.
The ship in which Bayle hopes to break records is designed for all the speed it can
manufacture, It is streamlined to the limit, short and narrow to catch only a thin slice of
wind as it plunges through the air. The wings, which are wide and spread twenty-three
feet from tip to tip, hang low. The landing gear, cowled with pants, hangs close to the
wings and gives the plane a appearance of an eagle with its talons poised ready to strike.
The design has many original ideas, conceived by Robert Hall, a flyer and engineer from
Springfield. The ship and design are new.
Bayles squeezes into the narrow fuselage, and sits under a transparent hood, only four
feet from the tail of the stubby, fifteen-foot fuselage.
The engine is equipped with a supercharger to develop 535 horsepower.
Holds Worlds Air Record
Lowell Bayles Set New Speed Mark at National air races
Lowell Bayles, a son of Mr. and Mrs. R.E. Bayles of this city, is now the holder of the
unofficial world’s airplane speed record for land planes, at this dispatch to Wednesday’s
metropolitan paper tells:
Cleveland Ohio, September 1- Lowell Bayles, dark-haired and tanned flyer from
Springfield, Massachusetts, tonight had the unofficial distinction of being the world’s
speediest land plane pilot, and planned later this week to make the distinction official.
By the grace of a twenty-mile wind and his tiny Gee Bee low-wing monoplane, Bayles
attained a speed of 286 miles an hour on a mile straightaway, in a tryout for the
Thompson trophy race, at the national air races Tuesday. The worlds record is 178.8
miles an hour.
Flying four times with and against the wind over the straightaway, he averaged 207.342
miles an hour, more than one mile an hour faster than the American record of Lieutenant
Al Williams former navy pilot. To make his speed an official world record, Bayles, transport
pilot with more than 3500 flying hours, will have a barograph installed in his plane and a
three-kilometer course marked off. To break a record he must top it by approximately five
miles an hour.
The ship in which Bayle hopes to break records is designed for all the speed it can
manufacture, It is streamlined to the limit, short and narrow to catch only a thin slice of
wind as it plunges through the air. The wings, which are wide and spread twenty-three
feet from tip to tip, hang low. The landing gear, cowled with pants, hangs close to the
wings and gives the plane a appearance of an eagle with its talons poised ready to strike.
The design has many original ideas, conceived by Robert Hall, a flyer and engineer from
Springfield. The ship and design are new.
Bayles squeezes into the narrow fuselage, and sits under a transparent hood, only four
feet from the tail of the stubby, fifteen-foot fuselage.
The engine is equipped with a supercharger to develop 535 horsepower.
