When I was a very young man I took this photograph of 'Al' Williams in the cockpit of the 1929 Mercury-Packard racer which was groomed for the Schneider Trophy Race of that year but never took part. The engine was a 1,250-h.p. Packard 'X' inline. That was the year Major (then Lt. U.S. Army Air Corps) 'Al' J. Williams was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his experimental inverted flight tests carried out in March 1928. 'Al' was a great pilot and flawless aerobatist, and it is sad to record that he passed away a short while back, while still very much in the prime of life, at the farm near New Bern, North Carolina, to which he had retired. 'Al' is perhaps best known to your readers as the pilot of the famous series of orange-and-blue Gulfhawks which were a feature of so many pre-war air displays.