“It got to be a habit, this record-breaking. His next venture was New York to Los Angeles and back. He left Roosevelt field at 8 o’clock in the morning, and was in Los Angeles in the evening. Seven hours later he turned back and in 17½ hours more he was back again at Roosevelt field. It was dark coming down, and he broke a wing, but he escaped unhurt. He’d broken the east-west, west-east, and round trip records, all of them, making the round trip in 36 hours and 48 some minutes.
“Hawks never let people forget him for long. He was out to sell speed to the country, and he knew that the way to do it was by speeding. In July everybody began to hear about the ‘mystery ship’ that was being built for him. It was a monoplane. On August 6th, it was a mystery no longer. Hawks was going to race with the sun. The sun had always beaten him so far, and he wanted a return match, for revenge.
“So he lifted his monoplane into the air in New York, just as the sun was rising, at about 6 in the morning. He flew right with that sun and got into Los Angeles before it had set, or just about 10 minutes before 6 o’clock in the evening. He’d beaten dat ol’ davil sun, all right. One week later, and he was on his way back across the continent again, and got to New York in less than 12½ hours.
“Well, he’d proved how quickly you could get across the United States in an ordinary plane. Then he showed how you could cross with a glider, towed by an engined plane. Why, you ask. Well, in the first place, it attracted attention to gliders. And gliders are important in aviation. And then, if towed gliders are practical, they might solve the problem of carrying pay loads in cross-country flights. The glider could be loaded up, hitched to an airplane, and go from New York to any point west. That was the idea. Well, Hawks did attract attention. It took him six and a half days to get from San Diego to New York, stopping off at a lot of cities, and just generally bumming around the country.
“In 1930 about the only spectacular flight that Frank Hawks made was the tour with Will Rogers, when they flew around the country seeking help for the drought victims. They covered 57 cities in 17 days, which meant a lot of work, because they put on a show wherever they stopped. Hawks, with his stage experience behind him, fitted in perfectly with the plan. He not only could fly, but he developed a patter, modeled after Will Rogers’ and came out chewing gum and swinging a lariat.
“In 1931, having about exhausted record-breaking in the United States, our friend Mr. Hawks left these shores, and went off to Europe to sell speed and airplanes to that continent. No sooner had he landed than he started to break their records, too. The first one to fall was the speed record from London to Berlin, a distance, of 600 miles, which he made in 2 hours and 57 minutes. This was just about half the time that the regular passenger planes take. He had a light tail wind behind him, to help him, and a bad fog over the channel to hinder him. He flew the whole distance by compass.
“About a week later the United States again heard from Frank Hawks. They heard that he’d dined in three European capitals on the same day. Left Bourget before breakfast, had breakfast in London, kippers, I suppose, or kidneys, at the Croydon Field. That was about 9:30. He left Croydon for Berlin, and got there 3 hours and 20 minutes later, in time for lunch at the Tempelhof Airdrome. He flew back to Paris, for tea at Le Bourget, and then motored into the city for a good dinner. The dinner he didn’t pay for. It was on some friends who had bet him that he couldn’t make it. He did. Don’t bet against Frank Hawks. It isn’t good business.
“The next month, on June 17, Frank felt hungry again, and maybe tired of the food he’d been getting, anyway. So he got into his plane, at London, just after breakfast; had luncheon in Rome, and got back in time for tea in London. He’d made the round trip in 9 hours and 44 minutes, actual flying time. Of course, a man has to take time out to eat. Getting to Rome and back meant that he’d beaten the Alps twice. He enjoyed that trip. He’d had a head wind with him all the way, and was pretty glad about beating the Alps. They look less mighty and dangerous when you’re looking down at them from a safe plane, in the cleat sunshine. Almost gentle.
“Speedy Hawks decided to come back to America. But he didn’t come back to rest. He went right on breaking records, and making up new ones to be broken. In January of 1932 he flew from Agua Caliente to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 13 hours and 44 minutes. That was called his famous three-flag flight. It was a grand flight, too, and the first of its kind to be flown in one day. It wasn’t non-stop; he’d stopped at Oakland, California and Portland, Oregon, both on the way up and the way back, for fuel. The trip was about 2,600 miles long, and he’d averaged about 180 miles per hour.
“Hawks is certainly accomplishing what he set out to do. He’s never had to bail out, and he’s never had a serious accident. He was pretty well banged up when he didn’t clear the ground and crashed into some wires early in 1932, but he pulled out of that all right. Flying fast was no more dangerous than flying slowly, if a man could handle his plane. What the country needed was speed and more speed, and Hawks gave it to them. It helped, too. The whole commercial system in the United States has speeded up. Two hours have been cut off the transcontinental trip, and more will undoubtedly be cut off. In June of ’32 Hawks was made Lieutenant Commander Hawks. And it’s no more than he deserves. He’s a great lad.