r.

To this engine belongs an altitude record of 30,500 feet, made at
Martlesham, near Ipswich, on January 2nd, 1919, by Captain Lang, R.A.F.,
the climb being accomplished in 66 minutes 15 seconds. Previous to this,
the altitude record was held by an Italian pilot, who made 25,800 feet
in an hour and 57 minutes in 1916. Lang's climb was stopped through
the pressure of air, at the altitude he reached, being insufficient for
driving the small propellers on the machine which worked the petrol and
oil pumps, or he might have made the height said to have been attained
by Major Schroeder on February 27th, 1920, at Dayton, Ohio. Schroeder
is said to have reached an altitude of 36,020 feet on a Napier biplane,
and, owing to failure of the oxygen supply, to have lost consciousness,
fallen five miles, righted his machine when 2,000 feet in the air, and
alighted successfully. Major Schroeder is an American.

Turning back a little, and considering other than British design of Vee
and double-Vee or 'Broad arrow' type of engine, the Renault firm from
the earliest days devoted considerable attention to the development of
this type, their air-cooled engines having been notable examples from
the earliest days of heavier-than-air machines. In 1910 they were making
three sizes of eight-cylindered Vee-type engines, and by 1915 they had
increased to the manufacture of five sizes, ranging from 25 to 100 brake
horse-power, the largest of the five sizes having twelve cylinders but
still retaining the air-cooled principle. The De Dion firm, also,
made Vee-type engines in 1914, being represented by an 80 horse-power
eight-cylindered engine, air-cooled, and a 150 horse-power, also
of eight cylinders, water-cooled, running at a normal rate of 1,600
revolutions per minute. Another notable example of French construction
was the Panhard and Levassor 100 horse-power eight-cylinder Vee engine,
developing its rated power at 1,500 revolutions per minute, and having
the--for that time--low weight of 4.4 lbs. per horse-power.

American Vee design has followed the British fairly cclosely; the
Curtiss Company produced originally a 75 horse-power eight-cylinder Vee
type running at 1,200 revolutions per minute, supplementing this with
a 170 horse-power engine running at 1,600 revolutions per minute, and
later with a twelve-cylinder model Vee type, developing 300 horse-power
at 1,500 revolutions per minute, with cylinder bore of 5 inches and
stroke of 7 inche