Swain to Pezzi

Up to 49,944 ft. over England last autumn climbed a big Bristol monoplane with Squadron Leader F. R. D. ("Ferdie") Swain at the controls wearing a complex airtight suit and oxygen pump. Before Ferdie Swain got down again from this world record altitude for heavier-than-air craft he nearly lost his life by suffocation, only saved it by slicing open his helmet with a knife just as he was losing consciousness (TIME, Oct. 19).

Last week another pilot in a bulky, air-tight suit climbed almost ten miles up into the stratosphere. He was Colonel Mario Pezzi, commander of the military altitude school at Montecarlo, Italy. In his Caproni biplane with its 14-cylinder, 700-h.p. Piaggio engine, he encountered temperature as low as 65.2DEG below zero Fahrenheit, but got back to earth without trouble and with a new world record of 51,361 ft.

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