Speedy Rich Selph '61, a Pan American

Speedy Rich Selph '61, a Pan American first officer, zoomed "top to top" in 7 hours, 6 minutes, 24 seconds to pick up the top prize in the subsonic aircraft classification of "The Great Transatlantic Air Race" staged by the London Daily Mail. A total of 390 competitors raced between the tops of the Empire State Building and London's Post Office Tower for prize money of $144,000 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the first transatlantic crossing by Alcock and Brown.

Rich's east-to-west race had been preceded by careful planning with the assistance of several fellow Pan Am employees. One friend rode 200 miles around London laying out a motorcycle route through back alleys. The captain of cargo flight 163 had the engines running as Rich arrived at the airport after being whizzed through the airport tunnel in a Land-Rover. Then a miraculous tailwind, which rarely blows westward, carried the plane across the ocean in six hours flat for a new east-west speed record and a sure win for Rich.

Back in London soon after, Prince Philip presented him with a check for £4,000 ($9,-600) offered by Rothman's of Pall Mall, and Rich saw that his friends were amply rewarded for their assistance in his victory.