Aspiration

Last week Goodyear-Zeppelin Corp. of Akron was awarded the contract for a balloon with a capacity of 3,000,000 cubic feet of gas. With this bag. tall as a 30-story building, the U. S. Army (in conjunction with the National Geographic Society) plans to make two stratosphere flights, one in June and another in September. The pilots will be Major William Kepner, qualified pilot of every type of aircraft, and Captain Albert W. Stevens, air photography expert. Their balloon will be five times as large as the Navy balloon which made the official altitude record of 61,237 ft. last Autumn (TIME, Nov. 27), three and one-half times as large as the Soviet balloon which made an unofficial record of over 62,000 ft. (11.8 mi.). Their aim: 80,000 ft. (15 mi.).

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