At 3,500 feet, the soaring plane skirted a cumulus cloud, was instantly sucked up into it by powerful air currents. Airman Udo Fischer got panicky. At 5,000 feet he bailed out. Minutes later he landed in a farmer's field near Big Flats, N. Y., unhurt but out of the running for the Elmira Soaring Contest's annual $1,500 trophy.
But still brilliantly in the running was Lieutenant Robert M. Stanley of Pensacola's naval air base. Fortnight ago he had upped the U. S. altitude record to 13,400 feet (world record: German Captain Walter Drechsel's 23,196...
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