HURTLING THROUGH THE AIR at the rate of almost five miles a minute, a twenty-seven-year-old British flight lieutenant won the coveted Schneider trophy for seaplanes at Venice on September 26. Only two planes of the six competing were able to finish the 217-mile triangular course, and both were English entries. All three Italian competitors, including Major de Bernardi, winner of the event last year, were forced by engine trouble to abandon the race.
Not only were all existing aviation speed records for seaplanes smashed during the race, but the record for land machines was exceeded by three miles an hour. The average speed of Lieutenant Webster’s Supermarine monoplane, equipped with a Napier engine—281.488 miles an hour—is all the more remarkable, say Venice correspondents of American newspapers, when it is considered that the British machine was equipped with pontoons, which hindered its progress through the air. It was also necessary for the pilot to make fourteen hairpin-turns during the race.
Lieutenant Webster’s official time was 46 minutes, 20 28-100 seconds. In other words, he could have flown from Detroit to Chicago, or from St. Louis to Kansas City, on a straightaway course, in about three-quarters of an hour. As a result of the Schneider Cup race, the New York Times is convinced that “in future, the United States will have to reckon with British airmen and airplane designers, rather than with French or Italian.”