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The meet was prefaced by a 220-mi. cross-country derby (Orlando to Miami) for sportsmen pilots. Ingeniously planned by Tycoon Doherty's aviation adviser. Col. Clarence Marshall Young, the contest was an accuracy test instead of a straightaway speed dash. Each pilot was expected to fly by way of three control stops at exactly the rated cruising speed of his plane. Wise Colonel Young knew that some pilots would rush ahead at top speed only to loaf around Miami until the precise minute for a perfectly timed finish. To outsmart them he secretly made the Fort Lauderdale control stop the official finish. Of 59 starters the winner was Lawrence P. Sharpies of Philadelphia's up-&-coming Pylon Club, who landed within 32 seconds of his schedule.
Much of the race program consisted of straight showmanship by Army, Navy and Marine squadrons. There were rope throwers, clowns, trick bicyclists, and a fan dancer who, caught in the backwash of a propeller, turned out to be an unlovely male.
Since most of the races involved small planes, no important speed records were broken. Fastest time of the meet was registered by "Jimmy" Wedell who, in a free-for-all, had to throttle his world's-record-breaking plane down to 232 m. p. h. to make it look as if he were in the same meet. Jack Wright of Utica, N. Y. made a new world's record for light cabin planes, 167 m. p. h. Lee Miles of Los Angeles barely missed breaking the single-seater record with 194.5 m. p. h.
*Last week Vice Admiral Suetsugu, Commander of the Japanese Fleet, was quoted as sayin that Japan was preparing to defend her self against a U. S. ''policy of hostility encircling Japan by every possible means. . . ." One of the "hostile" acts cited by the Admiral was the leisurely (light of the Lindberghs over the Kurile Islands in 1931. Said Admiral Suetsugu: "I may be mistaken but I think it is possible they were spying. . . ." †Penalty for destroying official documents: $2,000 line, three years in prison.