General Mitchell's Smash

After a test flight in a Curtiss single-seater pursuit airplane at Mineola, Brigadier General William Mitchell, Assistant Chief of Air Service, met with an accident on landing which might have had serious consequences. The landing gear or undercarriage of the plane struck a rut and broke; the machine did not overturn, however, and the General, with the promptness of a cavalryman, released his safety belt and jumped out, escaping with a severe shaking up.

The plane undergoing test was a modified form of a similar plane that won the Pulitzer race at Detroit last year. It does not attain quite the enormous speeds made in the race, because military equipment has to be carried. But it is the fastest fighting plane in the world with a maximum speed of 171.7 miles per hour.

The airplane incorporates many unique features of construction. It is built almost entirely of metal, which is rapidly superseding wood in the construction of aircraft. Each wing, instead of having two main strength members known as " spars," has a number of such spars which divide up the load between them. Since one or more of these spars can be pierced without the entire wing failing, invulnerability to shrapnel fire is secured. Another valuable feature is the wing cooling or radiation system. Instead of the ordinary automobile type of radiator, which increases the air resistance, the cooling water is pumped through small grooves in the sheet metal covering of the wings. The air rushing over the wing surface cools the water effectively. This is perhaps one of the most important developments of the airplane in recent years.