Raymond Delmotte test pilot and an Ace French World War I fighter pilot, flew a C.460 Rafale single-engine monoplane over a 3-kilometer (1.864 miles) straight course at an average speed of 505.85 kilometres per hour (314.32 miles per hour), setting a new Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) world record speed for land planes.
The Rafale was a low wing cantilever monoplane, wood framed and covered with a mixture of plywood and fabric. Its one-piece, single spar wing was strongly straight tapered to elliptical tips and was plywood covered with an outer layer of fabric. There were flaps inboard of the ailerons.
Its fuselage was flat sided and fabric covered, with a deep, rounded decking running the full length. It had an air cooled 110 kW (150 hp) inverted four-cylinder 6.3 L (380 cu in) inline Renault 4Pei Bengali engine in the nose, driving a two blade, two position variable pitch propeller.
The attempt consisted of four trial flights over a regulation three-kilometre straight course, the average time made during all of them being taken as the final result.
Delmotte made a preliminary attempt in the morning, but, owing to a crosswind of 10 m.p.h. then prevailing, he was able to attain only 478 km./hr. as the average result. He then waited until the afternoon, when, the wind having fallen to about 2½ m.p.h., he took off again and accomplished an average speed of 505.84 km./hr., according to the official timers, who will submit this figure to the F.A.I. for homologation.
Delmotte won a prize of 300,000 francs, equivalent to $19,000 U.S. dollars. He passed away in 1962.
