Photo by Ron Bishop
Doug Andrews
Freshman involved in air race
Aldon Bell resigns as assistant College dean
By SARAH DALE
Kansan Staff Writer
A KU freshman participated in Sunday's transatlantic Air Race from the top of the Empire State Building to the top of the General Post Office Tower in London.
Douglas Andrews, Kansas City, made the trip from New York to London in a short seven hours, 35 minutes, and 40 seconds with a friend, Bob Peterson, who attends Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"We started the race on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building," Andrews said. "We then took a car to the heliport and then a helicopter to Kennedy airport. A car took us from the general aviation terminal to the main terminal and we left on the TWA flight 702.
"There were seven entrants on the flight we were on. Before we reached London we drew lots to see who would get off first. Bob and I were the youngest, we ran the fastest and were the first to pass port control."
Andrews described his trip from the London airport to the Post Office Tower as harrowing.
"We left the London Airport at 9:30 p.m. We made it to the tower in 22 minutes, half of the way without brakes. We were racing other cars and were going up on the side of the freeway.
"A friend met us at the airport in a small Ford Cortina. It's 20 miles into London on a freeway. We were racing other cars and were going up on the side of the freeway.
"There isn't a police set-up in London like what we have here. They also knew the race was going on and were pretty lenient.
"When we reached London,
the roads were narrower and we had to make many rapid stops, consequently the brakes went out."
As a memento of the race Andrews received a travel bag. He said he wouldn't receive a prize because the next day another man who was unsponsored and flying commercial made the trip in six hours and 54 minutes.
"I found out about the contest through aviation magazines. Seven or eight months ago Bob and I made our preliminary decisions about the race."
Living in the Topeka Area This Summer? MAKE YOUR SUMMER COUNT!
Enroll in the Washburn Summer Sessions
- Graduate and Undergraduate Credit
- Choose from over 100 courses
Aldon Bell, assistant dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and associate professor of history, resigned yesterday to accept a similar position at Washington University in Seattle.
- Day or Evening Classes
- Classes begin June 9
For details - write or call
Director of Continuing Education Washburn University of Topeka Phone CE5-5341, extension 333
Bell will be in charge of a new university unit called the Division of Liberal Studies.
A Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in England from 1951 to 1954, Bell also studied at the University of California in Berkeley before he returned to Oxford to earn his Ph.D. degree in 1961. That same year he joined the KU faculty as a history instructor.
"My decision to leave KU has been a difficult one," Bell said. "College Dean George R. Waggoner is one of the most impressive academic statesmen in the nation."
10 KANSAN May 8 1969