Around-the-World

Four weeks ago a monoplane jumped eastward from Newfoundland to break the record for a journey around the world. At the controls sat William S. Brock; beside him sat Edward F. Schlee.

First 17 Days. (See TIME, Sept. 12, 19.)

Eighteenth Day. Typhoon and tidal wave struck Kiushiu Island, Japan (see p. 22) on which is Omura, where the Pride of Detroit sulked in her hangar. So boisterous were the skies that the Pride dared not fly.

Nineteenth Day. The Pride of Detroit dropped at Tokyo. There Mr. Schlee found a cablegram: "Daddy: Please take the next boat home to us. We want you. (signed) Rosemarie." Rosemarie is ten. Soon wires under the Pacific were alive with news that the around-the-world flight was at an end. Mr. Schlee's reasons for stopping were not entirely domestic. The next jump was 2,500 miles over the Pacific to the tiny Midway Islands, lonely coral reefs where landing ground for an airplane was problematical. Cables said that fuel for the next hop, to Honolulu (1,400 miles over the sea), had not arrived at Midway Islands. Neither Schlee nor Brock is a navigator. Aviation experts all over the world regarded the jump as certain suicide. Scores of protest-cables awaited the flyers in Tokyo. Said Mr. Brock: "We quit because the entire world is fighting us." There was another possible reason for their quitting. They had flown 12.275 miles in 19 days; there re- mained 9,847 miles to be flown in 9% days if they were to wreck the present record of 28 days, 14 hours, 36 minutes.