Around the World in Ten DaysFraser, Chelsea Curtis
General
Around the World in Ten Days
Fraser, Chelsea Curtis
Air pilots -- Juvenile fiction; Voyages around the world -- Juvenile fiction
In the afternoon our party paid a visit to the aquarium again, extending
it to the Biological Laboratory nearby; and took supper in the beautiful
white casino, which fronts the beach, after they had had a refreshing
plunge in the ocean's waters. Then Paul and Bob took up Mr. and Mrs.
Choate for a short flight in the airplane.
Early the next morning they bade their Miami friends good-bye, and once
more took to the air, this time to complete the last leg of their journey
to Panama. It was found that the Sky-Bird's fuel tanks were apparently
still full enough to carry them to their destination, so it had not been
necessary to store either gasoline or oil in Miami. This was very
gratifying, as it showed quite conclusively that, later on in the race,
the Sky-Bird would be able to make her longest jumps without the peril of
fuel shortage.
At a height of close to two thousand feet they headed across Florida
Strait, with Paul at the throttle. It was a real joy to be looking
through the glass panels of the airplane's cabin once more, to hear the
muffled roar of her engine and propeller, and to realize that probably
before dark they would be across the five hundred miles of blue waters of
the Caribbean and hovering over the world-famous Canal Zone.
It was a fine morning. What clouds could be seen were well above
them--light, billowy, and white, reflecting the sunlight so strongly upon
the white-capped waters below, that the sea seemed much closer to the
voyagers than it really was.
Shortly after eight o'clock they crossed over the long, low-lying island
of Cuba, dipping down close enough to get a fairly good view of the
topography. Then rising to three thousand feet, they swerved a little to
the eastward and made off across the Caribbean Sea itself.
At a few minutes of eleven they sighted the shore of Jamaica, five miles
or so to the eastward of them. Then John took the throttle, both engines
were put into the work, and they began to whizz through the air at a clip
which would have made them gasp for breath had they been in an open
cockpit. As it was, the rush of air as it swept along each side of the
fuselage and off its narrowing tail, became a veritable howl in whose
noise they found conversation very difficult. Tom Meeks, who was leaning
over John's shoulder and watching the instrument-board, triumphantly
announced presently that they were traveling at the rate of 280 miles an
hour!
For thirty minutes or more John Ross kept the Sky-Bird going at this
terrific speed, then he slowed up, and transferred into mono-engine gear,
as there was no use in unnecessarily heating the power-plants. As the
indicator of the speedometer retreated to 150 miles, he turned the
throttle over to Bob Giddings, and said: "Hold her at this rate, Bob;
it's plenty fast enough for the present."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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