Neither flight was made in ideal conditions. The Mercury and the long-range monoplanes had to fight head winds most of the way. The lend planes flew thousands of miles through heavy tropical storms and clouds which restricted them, for hours at a time, to navigation by "struments alone.
They crossed India without seeing be it, steering a course above the clouds at a height of 10,000 feet by stellar Observations, Nevertheless, both rec-ards were achieved at a far higher overage speed than was attained in any earlier comparable flight. The Mercury averaged 142 mph. and the land planes no less than 153 m.p.h—figures which demonstrate the aerodynamical efficiency of the aircraft and their high performance in speed as well as in range.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.