THE SPEED KINGS

These are the brave knights of air, land, sea and two wheels who were first to crack the magic 250mph mark

- James Page

THEY SAY THAT records are meant to be broken, and few knew that better than Harold J Brow. On 2 November 1923 the naval aviator set a new airspeed record of 259.16mph at Mitchel Field on Long Island, New York - only for Alford J Williams to set a new mark of 266.59mph two days later. Still, Brow's record is in the history books as the first officially to surpass 250mph.

The previous benchmark of 236.587mph had been set earlier that year by Russell Maughan in a Curtiss R-6. During the early '20s, the New York-based company enjoyed a great deal of success in events such as the Schneider Trophy, which it won in 1923 and 1925, and the Pulitzer Trophy, a time trial over four laps of a 32-mile closed course.

Brow's 1923 record was set in one of two R2C aircraft that Curtiss built specifically for racing. Powered by a watercooled V12 engine, it was a streamlined single-seater biplane that, to modern eyes, resembles an airborne 'drop-tank racer. The upper wing was mounted to the top of the tapered fuselage and cooling was via surface-mounted radiators. The wings were staggered and of an unequal span, and braced with a single strut on either side.

The month before Brow and Williams traded the airspeed record, the two R2C-1s finished first and second in the 1923 Pulitzer Trophy, Williams coming out on top with an average speed of 243.67mph. One of the R2C-1s was then sold to the US Army and destroyed in an accident the following year, but the second aircraft was converted to Schneider Trophy specification, its wheeled landing gear being replaced by pontoons. It then won the seaplane class in the 1924 Pulitzer Trophy at 227.5mph.