AERONAUTICS: Slim Pickens

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His white shirt and linen knickers unsoiled. Capt. Hawks stood grinning in the cockpit, gnawed a sandwich, gulped coffee and water before responding to the welcoming committee. He disclaimed all concern in breaking the old record of 14 hr. 45 min., set by the Lindberghs on Easter Sunday. Said he: "I am not interested in records. It was purely a business demonstration of the possibilities of an aerial pony express. With relays of pilots and fast planes at intermediate points ... I think a schedule of 13 to 15 hrs. could be maintained. . . . The nonstop flight is of no value. Why load up with a lot of gas? ... I didn't really have the ship 'wide open'; but I don't think the flight can be made much faster."

Peaches, Peonies. Britain's dirigible R-100 ended her 13-day visit to Canada last week (TIME, Aug. 11), sailed for home with a new tear in her fabric, one of her six motors disabled as the result of a side-flight over Toronto, Ottawa and Niagara, and with nine English and Canadian news correspondents aboard. Freight and express revenues estimated at $500,000 had to be rejected in accordance with Air Ministry orders. Only excess cargo was a bunch of peonies for King George from Viscount Willingdon, governor-general; and a box of Canadian peaches for the Prince of Wales from Prime Minister Ferguson of Ontario. The homeward flight was uneventful until the second night when severe headwinds were accompanied by a deluge which overflowed the ballast tanks, penetrated the fabric, sloshed into the cabins, put the electric stove out of commission. Next day's breakfast consisted of sardines, whiskey & soda. The winds slowed the R-100 materially—for five hours the speed varied between 15 and 35 m. p. h. Sir Charles Dennistoun Burney, designer, had hoped to make the 3,200-mi. crossing in 50 hr.; the time to moorings at Cardington, England was 57 hr. 5 min.* Officials announced that new "skins" would be placed on both R-100 and R-101; that both craft will be kept busy, the R-101 starting with a flight to Egypt and India this Autumn, the R-100 probably repeating its Canadian voyage.

Cloud-rider. At Mt. Wasserkupper in the Rhon Mountains, where international glider contests were in progress last week, an approaching thunderstorm sent pilots and spectators scurrying for cover. One pilot, however, Robert Kronfeld of Austria, deliberately took off with his new glider Wien, largest ever built. He knew that the heavy clouds indicated strong upcurrents. He "hooked on" beneath a cloud, soared ahead of the storm's center, landed at Hof, 94 mi. distant, bettering his old world's record by two miles.