Bennett Balloons

Swaying foolishly in a strong southeast wind, 16 swollen gas bags floated up from Basle, Switzerland, one day last week. It was the 21st James Gordon Bennett International Balloon Race. Favorite teams were led by Belgium's Ernest de Muyter, four-time winner of Bennett races, and Ward Tunte Van Orman, Goodyear Tire & Rubber aeronautical engineers, also a fourtime winner. But last to come to earth was the U. S. Navy's entry, piloted by Lieuts. Thomas G. W. Settle and Wilfred Bushnell, winners of last year's U. S. meet. After 40 hr. in the air they were forced down with a defective valve near the Polish-Latvian frontier--about 921 mi. from Basle. Pilot Van Orman's Good-year VIII was second with 830 mi., France's Petit Mousse third with 739 mi. Near Warsaw the champion Navy bag drifted so low that laborers seized a drag rope, were hauling the ship down until angry Pilot Settle threw a sand bag at their heads.

Although the U. S. was entitled to have the Bennett races at home this year by virtue of its 1930 victory,-- the privilege was waived because it was feared that few European countries would send teams. The last four Bennett races have been in the U. S., forcing foreign entries to compete under unfamiliar conditions. The third U. S. entry, Army No. 2, piloted by Lieut. Wilfred J. Paul and Sergeant John Bishop ("The Harmony Twins"), dropped out for lack of Army funds. Winners of this year's National races (TIME, June 13). they searched unsuccessfully for a private sponsor.

The only control the pilot has over his balloon is up & down. He valves gas to descend, drops ballast to rise. His skill is measured by his judgment of weather conditions and his ability to find favoring winds with the least use of his two tools, gas and ballast. A U. S. team won the 1913 Bennett race from Paris when, instead of grounding before they reached the Atlantic as did all other balloons, they continued out to sea, knowing they would strike a wind that would carry them northeast to England. This year all gas bags carried radios to receive weather reports. Contrary to experience in nearly all balloon races held in the U. S., no balloons were shot at by the peasantry.

*No International held 1931.

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