Swiftest Flyer

Like a blue cockchafer crawling onto a floating chip of wood, Naval Lieutenant Alfred J. William's Schneider Cup mono-seaplane Mercury floated on the Severn River off Annapolis last week, her nose in a barge. Lieutenant Williams, swiftest U. S. straightaway flyer since he won the 1923 Pulitzer speed trophy at St. Louis by flying 266.6 m. p. h., built the Mercury from his own specifications. The Navy could not afford the building costs. So friends supplied him the needed $175,000. The navy gave him factory facilities.

The Mercury's wing spread is only 18 ft., her length 23 feet. Her motor is a 24-cylinder Packard, generating more than 1,100 h. p. Lieutenant Williams, expert in motors, metals and fabrics operating through high speed's, naturally expects her to win the Schneider Cup at Cowes, England, next month. To do that she must surpass the 318 m. p. h. attained by the Italian Major Mario de Bernardi in 1927.

The Mercury was used on the Severn barge last week for her first flying tests. Mrs. Williams was adjusting the parachute while mechanics were trying to start the plane's huge motor. Suddenly the plane slipped into the water. She was not damaged. But trials were postponed. Next day Lieutenant Williams taxied down the river. She made 110 m. p. h. and started to lift from the water. Another 100 ft. and she would have been in the air. That was a fact upon which he had calculated. But at that speed the twist of the motor forced one wing to feather the water. He figured out a way of overcoming the effect of the torque. The propeller sucked something up from the water and bent itself, an unforseen event. Later, leisurely, safely and, if possible, secretly Lieutenant Williams was to actually fly his Mercury along Chesapeake Bay before taking her to England for his mightiest air exertion.