"W. R." At his ranch at San Simeon, Calif. Publisher William Randolph Hearst went up in a Stinson monoplane for what was said to be his first flight since the early days of barnstorming aviators.
Altitude. A scarlet-and-cream Lockheed-Vega, with handsome Socialite Ruth Nichols at the controls, roared into the sky over Manhattan, settled into a steady climb of nearly an hour's duration. A thermometer on the wing stopped registering at 45° below zero. A high west wind blew the ship backwards, nearly five miles out to sea. Miss Nichols, breathing oxygen that...
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