At the beginning of the 17th lap of the Thompson Trophy Race at Chicago last year Capt. Arthur H. Page, U. S. M.C., led the field by nearly a full lap in his swift Curtiss-Hawk. Then, without warning, the ship dove out of line at 200 m. p. h., crashed its pilot to death. No satisfactory explanation of the tragedy was ever reached; but many onlookers, including David S. Ingalls, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Aeronautics, suspected carbon monoxide. The same hazard—odorless, colorless CO gas from the engine exhaust, soaking into...
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