Seven Miles Up

Some miles from Dayton, Ohio, he rubbed his nose, wondering if it was frozen. To the west, 110 miles away across the snow-covered country, he could clearly see the houses of Indianapolis; he could see Cincinnati 50 miles to the south, and Columbus 65 miles northeast. The temperature about him was 79 degrees below zero. He was Lieutenant John A. Macready, flying an XCO-5 in an attempt to break the world's altitude record, held by M. Callise of France. The seven miles that separated him from Dayton were miles of clear and frigid air.

Up and up he went. His supercharger (a device for furnishing the mixing-chamber with sea-level conditions) went out of commission at 25,000 feet. Still he climbed. At 35,900 feet his engine balked. He wheeled and began to slide down to Dayton. He had failed by 3,586 feet to break the record of M. Callise, but set a new U. S. record. He said:

"Had the supercharger been functioning properly, I believe it would have been very easy to gain a height greatly in excess of 40,000 feet . . . . Visibility was excellent. . . . The clock froze at about 30,000 feet. . . . I was in no danger at any time. . . . Of course I got a little chilly."