KINCAID-L Archives

Archiver > KINCAID > 1998-02 > 0887246376


From: Peter A. Kincaid< >
Subject: [KINCAID-L] Lieutenant Samuel Marcus Kinkead
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 21:19:36 -0400


The following article relates to the Kincaid who was killed trying to break
the air speed record of 297 miles an hour in 1928.

*****
English Channel Yields Kinkead's Body; He Made 330 Miles an Hour in Test Flight.

Copyright, 1928, by The New York Times Company.
By Wireless to The New York Times.

London, March 13. -- The body of Lieutenant S. M. Kinkead and the plane
which carried him to his death in a speed flight yesterday were recovered
from the English Channel today. Almost at the same time it was disclosed
that the airspeed indicator he used in a test flight Monday registered 330
miles an hour and that he had hopes of attaining 350 miles yesterday.

The theory advanced as to the accident now is that in endeavoring to reach
the higher speed the machine, despite all human skill and foresight could do
to make it function perfectly, broke down under the strain.

Further evidence disclosed today suggests that the airman had not throttled
down when disaster overtook him. In order to gain the maximum height
allowable under the regulations for speed records, he had climbed to 1,300
feet over the Isle of Wight, then turned with the intention of diving down
to the water in order to flatten out and fly lower than 150 feet, as is
required over the course. In the dive, it is believed, he may easily
attained a speed of 350 miles an hour.

The wrecked seaplane was recovered from the bed of the Solent this afternoon
with Lieutenant Kinkead still in the crushed cockpit. The fuselage was
broken just aft of the engine and the machine was a crumpled mass without
wings, while the broken floats merely hung to the main structural members of
the fuselage by the bracing wires. The engine was detached from the seaplane.

Part of the metal frame work had to be cut away before Lieutenant Kinkead's
body, terribly mutilated, could be removed.

As a trawler was towing the wreckage of the seaplane to the shore the
American liner Leviathan hove in sight. The commander of the Leviathan, who
sent a message expressing regret at the accident, asked what passage he
should take to avoid the scene of the disaster. Two tugs swung the
Leviathan clear of the little official collection of craft flying the Royal
Air Force flag, making a detour which gave the American liner a clear
passage into Southampton.

It was stated tonight that Lieutenant Kinkead had been urged to content
himself with beating existing records and to keep within a speed of 310
miles per hour, as the designers of the machine thought it risky to exceed
that limit.

Source: The New York Times. Wednesday, March 14, 1928. Page 4, column 3.
*****

See ya!

Peter A. Kincaid
Fredericton, NB, Canada

Editor of the Clan Kincaid Web Page at:
http://www.alphalink.com.au/~kincai

This thread: