Zurich Meet

Wound up in Zurich this week was a ten-day international aviation meet which offered a fine chance to the nations of Europe to show how they were getting along with human and mechanical preparations for the ''War in the Air." Military planes and pilots held the stage and Germany, at least, took full advantage of the occasion, competing in all events which she thought she could win, avoiding others. She won the meet hands down, taking first places in the speed, climbing & diving, and solo Alpine circuit races in the new Messerschmidt pursuit planes with which she has decided to replace her Heinkels. Germany also won the Alpine circuit races for three-plane patrols and multimotor bombers. Captain Michy of France won the altitude contest in a Mureaux-113 by climbing 10,000 metres (32,800 ft.) in 20 min. 6 sec.

The Alpine circuit was a dangerous 352-mi. triangle crossing a 3,000-ft. range to Thun, thence over the 13,000-ft. Jungfrau to Bellinzona, the last lap over 11,000-ft. Scheerhorn Peak and back to Zurich. The German three-plane patrol made it in 58 min. 52.7 sec. of flying time and the Czechs, flying not quite up-to-date Avias were second in little over an hour. Their elapsed time, however, was less than that of the Germans. Meet crowds showed a tendency to cheer the Czechs, jeer the Germans.

Most hair-raising escape from death was that of Germany's baldish, grinning Major-General Ernst Udet, Germany's No. 1 stunt flier whose stunts include flicking a handkerchief off the ground with his wingtip and who apparently bears a charmed life. After the War, in which he brought down 62 Allied planes, Udet was forced to bail out more than once, on one occasion barely managing to kick himself free of the falling wreckage of his plane in time to open his parachute. Few hours after last week's accident, which occurred while Udet was competing in the Alpine circuit for solo pursuit planes, the German stunter nonchalantly described it to New York Times Correspondent Clarence K. Streit, who reported it thus: ". . . His racing monoplane cut through a 30,000-volt railway trolley in a blinding flash. His three-blade metal propeller became entangled in the cable supporting the trolley, and the monoplane whirled around. The tail flew off, but General Udet's luck remained. The cable was mounted on pulleys and counterweights, which allowed it to run out with the plane. The cable stood the shock of the 950-h.p. machine moving at 100 miles per hour. It held the remains of the plane, checked its speed, and, relatively speaking, eased it to the ground. With a scratch on his left arm the German ace stepped out of the wreck."

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