Flying Garage

An airplane in flight was refuelled at San Diego for the first time in the history of aviation. A quartet of Army officers, after much practice, succeeded in passing a fresh supply of gasoline from one plane to another flying forty feet below at the same speed of 90 miles an hour. The fuel was passed through a 40-foot steel wire-incased rubber hose into the tank of the lower plane, and so perfect was the maneuver that not a drop of gasoline was scattered-- and gasoline on hot exhaust pipes might spell disaster. The experiment was carried out in preparation for an attempt by Captain Lowell Smith and Lieutenant John P. Richters to beat all endurance records by a continuous flght of four days and nights. Two such attempts have failed, though one flight lasted 24 hours, but Smith and Richters will try again.