Famous Flyers and Their Famous Flights

“But expert navigating was Dick Byrd’sstrong point. He had developed a sextantby which the altitude of the sun could begaged without reference to the horizon line, and that was exactly what he needed now, because due to the formations of ice, the horizonwas irregular. But figuring out positionby means of the sextant requires at leastan hour of mathematical calculation, and bythe time the position had been figured, themen in the airplane had advanced about ahundred miles or more. So they used amethod that they had learned, whereby theirposition could be judged by means of takingthe altitude of the sun and laying down theline of position on a sort of graph.

“Their compass was of little value. Theywere too near the North Magnetic Pole, which had a tendency to pull their magnetfrom the geographical Pole to its own position, about 1,000 miles south. So theyused a sun compass, that indicated theirposition by means of the sun. Of course, thefact that they had sun throughout the wholetrip was an advantage. I doubt if they couldhave made it otherwise. Navigating up thereis too difficult. Then they had to figureon wind drift. The wind, blowing prettyhard, say, about 30 miles an hour at rightangles to their plane would cause it to driftthirty miles an hour out of its course. Thisthey were able to make up for by means ofthe drift indicator, which compensated forthe drift.

“Bennett piloted first. He would glanceback to the cabin where Byrd was busywith the navigating instruments, and Byrdwould indicate to him how to steer his courseby waving his hand to the right or the left.When they were certain of their course, Byrdlooked down on the land that he had desiredto see since he had been a boy in school.Below them, stretching for mile upon milewas the ice pack, criss-crossed with ridges, seeming like mere bumps in the ice from theiraltitude, but really about 50 or 60 feet high.Every now and then they saw a lead, openedby the movement of the water – thosetreacherous leads that had led many a hardyexplorer to his death.

“Byrd took the wheel. He steered withone hand while he held the compass in theother. Bennett poured gasoline into thetanks, and threw overboard the empty cans,to relieve the plane of weight. From thenon they took turn and turn about at thewheel, Byrd navigating incessantly, until hehad a slight attack of snow blindness fromlooking down at the snow so constantly.

“Soon they came to land where no manhad ever been before. It was then that Byrdfelt that he was being repaid for all theplanning, all the hard work and heart-breakingdisappointments that he had experienced.The sun was shining, the Josephine Fordfunctioning perfectly.

“Perfectly? Just a minute. They wereabout an hour from the Pole. Byrd noticedthrough the cabin window a bad leak in theoil tank of one motor. If the oil leaked out, the motor would burn up and stop. Shouldthey land? No. Why not go on as far asthey could, perhaps reach the Pole? Theywould be no worse off landing at the Polethan landing here, and they would havereached their goal. So on they kept. Byrdglued his eyes to the oil pressure gauge. Ifit dropped, their motor was doomed. Butthey would not land, or turn back.

“Luck was with them. At about twominutes past nine o’clock, they crossed thePole. It takes just a minute to say it, buthow many years of planning, how manyyears of patiently surmounting obstacles hadprepared for that minute’s statement!

“Below them was the frozen, snow-coveredocean, with the ice broken up into variousformations of ice fields, indicating thatthere was no land about. Byrd flew theplane in a circle several miles in diameter, with the Pole as a center. His field of viewwas 120 miles in diameter. All this whilehe was flying south, since all directions awayfrom the Pole are south. And now, his purposeaccomplished, his hardest task facedhim. He had to fly back to Spitzbergen.

“Soon after he left the Pole, the sextantthat he was using slid off the chart table, breaking the horizon glass. He had to navigatethe whole trip back by dead reckoning!With the oil fast spurting out, and the motorthreatening to stop any minute, and nosextant to show his position, Byrd had hishands full. They lost track of time. Minutesseemed like hours, hours like ages. Thenthey saw land dead ahead. It was Spitzbergen!Byrd had flown into the unknown,600 miles from any land, had turned about, and come back to the very spot from whichhe had started.

“Maybe you don’t realize what wonderfulnavigating this was. But anybody who hasnavigated a plane by dead reckoning knowsthat it was a feat that called for great skill.

“Nobody was prouder of what Byrd andBennett had done than the men who hadworked so hard to make the trip a success, and who had stayed behind at Spitzbergen, without glory or reward except in knowingthat they had been a necessary feature in thesuccess of that journey. The whistle of theChantier blew a shrill whistle of welcome.The men ran to greet Byrd and Bennett, andcarried them in triumph on their shoulders.Among the first to greet them were Amundsenand Ellsworth, whom Byrd had beatenin the race to be the first to cross the Poleby air. But they shook hands with vigor.They were glad that it was Byrd who hadbeaten them, if it had to be anybody. Byrdaffects people that way. He’s just as wellliked after successes as before them. That’sthe sort he is.

“They were pretty glad to see him whenhe got back to the United States, too. Therewere plenty of whistles blowing, plenty ofticker tape, and parades for the returninghero. But Dick Byrd stayed modest throughall of it. In the first place, he never getsfussed. He isn’t a southern gentleman fornothing. And in the second place, he realizedthat the shouting wasn’t so much forhim as it was for the thing that he did. Hehad brought the United States the honor ofsending the first men over the Pole. Andthe United States was applauding the deed, not himself. But he seems to have forgottenthat if it hadn’t been for his years ofplanning, striving and struggling the deednever would have been accomplished.

“Well, Dick Byrd had accomplished hislife’s ambition. But it didn’t mean that hewas ready to quit. There were new fieldsto conquer. How about flying the Atlantic?He’d always wanted to fly the Atlantic.Anything that was all adventure appealed tohim. So when they hoisted anchor at Spitzbergenafter the flight across the Pole Byrdsaid to his companion Bennett, ‘Now we canfly the Atlantic.’

“The plan to fly the ocean had its originin the same motives that the North Poleflight had. Byrd wanted to make Americaaviation conscious; and he wanted to makeAmerican aviators conscious of the benefitsof careful planning. Dozens of lives hadbeen lost in unsuccessful trans-oceanic flights – thelives of young men full of the love ofadventure, who made hasty plans, or noplans at all for spanning the ocean – whohad no qualifications except a great ambitionto see them through the great grind thatwas before them. Byrd wanted to show allfool-hardy young flyers that care, care, andmore care was needed in their preparations.He had to prove to the United States, too, that if care were exercised in these flights, they were not necessarily dangerous. All thisByrd had to prove. And in the meantimehe’d have the time of his life, steeped in theadventurous sort of work that he craved.

“So Byrd and Bennett started their plans.The first step, of course, was the choosingof the plane. Opinion was in favor of asingle-motored plane for a cross-Atlanticflight, since a single-motored plane wouldhave a greater cruising range; offer less resistancein the air; and be less complicatedto handle than a multi-motored craft. ButByrd held out for the tri-motor, the sametype of plane as the Josephine Ford, whichhad carried him over the Pole. There wasthis to say for it: if one motor stopped, theother two would still function; and it mightbe the solution to the problem of whatkind of plane would cross the Atlantic in thefuture, when planes ran on regular schedule.They wanted a bigger plane than theJosephine Ford, though. So they had onedesigned with a wing spread of 71 feet, which meant that they got an increased liftingpower of about 3,000 pounds. Thatenabled them to take along about 800 poundsof equipment above what they actually needed,to show that a pay load could be cartedacross the water in a plane.

“They needed plenty of equipment, though. There was a special radio set, rocketsto shoot off as signals if anything wentwrong; two rubber boats for the crew; andemergency food and equipment of all sortsfor forced landings; and even a special apparatusfor making drinking water out ofsalt water so that they would not go thirsty.In fact, they could have survived for threeweeks in case of an accident. They? Why,Byrd decided that besides himself and Bennett, they would take along passengers, alsoto prove something – this time that passengerscould be carried across to Europe byplane.

“They successfully petitioned the WeatherBureau to make predictions for the trans-Atlanticflights, and for the first time in historyregular weather maps for aviation weremade of the North Atlantic.

“At the end of April, in 1927, the planewas ready for its factory test. Byrd plannedto make his flight in May, which he figuredwas a good month. It happened that therewere at the time several other planes preparingto cross the ocean. Byrd was in norace, however. Of course, it would havebeen nice to be the first man across the Atlantic,as he had been the first man over thePole – but he encouraged the others whowere preparing and made no effort to be thefirst to start. However, his plane was readybefore the others.

“Byrd, Bennett, Noville, who was goingwith them, and Fokker took her up forher first flight. Fokker was at the controls; the other three, passengers. Everything wentsmoothly. She took off well; her motorsfunctioned perfectly. But as soon as themotors were turned off for the glide, theyfelt her nose dip. She was nose-heavy.When they tried to land, they knew definitelythat she was nose-heavy, and zoomedinto the air again to plan what they shoulddo. However, they couldn’t stay up indefinitely – theyhadn’t much fuel. Downthey glided again. The wheels touched theground. Fokker jumped. But the otherthree were caught.

“Byrd felt the fuselage heave up. Theplane went over on her nose, turned completelyover. Something struck him withan awful impact, and he felt his arm snap.They had to get out of this! They weretrapped in a mass of wreckage which mightat any moment burst into flames and burnthem to death before they had a chance toescape. Noville, beside Byrd, broke a holein the fabric with his fist, and they crawledout. The wreckage did not burn. Someonehad turned off the switches of all three motors.

“Bennett? He was hanging head down inthe pilot’s seat, unable to free himself. Hisleg was broken; his face bleeding. He wasbadly injured – so badly that for a week itwas thought that he would never recover.But he did – of course. His iron nerve andgrit pulled him through. But any thoughtof his going on the trip was out. This wasa blow to Byrd. There was no man hewould rather fly with than Bennett, FloydBennett, the cheerful companion, the willingworker, himself an expert pilot, andable to divine instructions before they wereeven given. Tough luck!

“But tough luck, too, was the fact thatthe plane was almost irreparably damaged.Byrd set his arm on the way to the hospital, had them put it in a sling so that it wouldbe out of the way, and went back to thefactory to supervise the repairing of theAmerica. It took over a month of worknight and day to repair the damage that hadbeen done, and re-design the nose so that thecraft would be balanced.

“May 21st was set for the christening ofthe plane. The christening-was changed intoa celebration of the successful flight of Lindbergh.Bennett was pleased with Lindy’sachievement, since Lindy had proved thevery things that Byrd himself had set out toprove – that with careful preparation, theocean could be spanned; and that a successfulocean flight would stir the imaginationsof the people, making them more consciousof aviation and its strivings. Then, too,Lindbergh cemented relationships betweenFrance and the United States, which was oneof Byrd’s purposes in flying to France insteadof to England, or any other country.

“Well, after the ocean had been crossed, there was no need for hurry. Not thatByrd had been in a rush; but there was agreat deal of criticism concerning the delayof his trip. Nobody knows how these thingsstart, or why. It seems that it should havebeen Byrd’s, and Byrd’s business alone, as towhen he chose to cross the ocean. After all,it was his life being risked, and his glory ifthe flight were successful. But a great manypeople in the United States felt that theremust be some ulterior motive in his notstarting immediately; and that he had beenbested by a mere boy when he let Lindberghbe the first man to conquer the ocean.

“But Byrd didn’t care. He knew whathe was about. He was a southern gentleman, and he said nothing to his defamers.And he went on completing his preparations.Chamberlin, with his passenger Levine, broke the world’s record for flying to Germany,in a remarkable flight. Byrd hailedtheir success.

“Then at last, on June 29th, early in themorning the weather man reported thatweather conditions, while not ideal, werefavorable. Dick Byrd decided to delay nolonger. He called together his crew, andmet them on the field at 3:00 o’clock inthe morning. It was a miserable morning, and a light rain was falling. By the lightof torches the crew was putting the finishingtouches on the huge’ America. There shewas, atop the hill that they had built forher, so that she would get a good fast start.And a good fast start she needed, all 15,000pounds of her. Think of the speed they hadto get up in order to lift that bulk from theground! They’d have to be going a mileand a half a minute!

“Bert Acosta was at the wheel; Noville, recovered from his serious injuries in thetrial crash, sat with his hand on the dumpvalve, by means of which he could dump aload of gasoline if they didn’t rise into theair; Bert Balchen, the young Norwegian reliefpilot and mechanic, was busy with thespare fuel.

“The engines were warmed up. Thegreat ship was ready – no, not quite ready.But she was eager to be off. The Americabroke the rope that held her, and glideddown the hill on which she had been held.It was a tense moment. Would they be ableto get this great hulk into the air? Alongthe ground she sped, gathering momentum.Her wheels lifted. There was a shout. Shehad cleared the ground. But the danger wasnot over. They must fly to at least 400 feet.Then the America showed her metal. Sheclimbed on a turn, and they were flying atan altitude of 400 feet. They were off!

“On they sped to their destination at last.The wind was behind them, helping them; the weather was disagreeable, and slightlyfoggy, but this did not bother them. Theyreached Nova Scotia easily. But when theygot there they got a horrible shock. Theyhad run into a fog. But what a fog! Oneso thick that they couldn’t see the land orocean under them. And they flew for 2,000miles like this, absolutely blind, with blacktowering clouds ahead of them, below them, and when they ran through them, all aroundthem.

“The strain was terrible. In addition,Byrd calculated that they had used morefuel than he had expected, because of climbingso high to get over the clouds, and theymight not have enough to take them toEurope. But they did not want to turnback. They would take their chance. Balchenand Acosta piloted with great skill, and Byrd took his turn at the wheel whilethey slept. The wind was with them, andthey made excellent speed. Radio messagescame to them clearly. They judged theirposition, and their gas supply, and foundthat they had underestimated their remaininggas. They could get to Rome.

“On the afternoon of the second day theycame out of the thick fog, and saw the welcomewater beneath them. They werebound for France, and they hit the coastlineat Finisterre. They headed for Paris. Thenthey radioed ahead for the weather report.Fog! Fog and storm, with its center atParis. This was the worst thing that couldpossibly have happened to them, this arrivingat their destination in a fog. But they wenton. It would be a triumph, and an additionto aviation knowledge if they couldland in a storm, after coming all the wayfrom America.

“They figured finally that they must bealmost over Paris. But suddenly the fogbelow them was pierced by a queer light.It was the revolving signal of a lighthouse!Their compass had gone back on them, andthey had made a circle, coming out not atParis, but back to the coast of France.

“They turned around, after adjustingtheir compasses, and made once more forParis by dead reckoning. They were aboveLe Bourget. But what could they do? Theycould see nothing below them, only an inkyblackness that nothing could penetrate.Landing would have meant not only deathto themselves, but perhaps to many peoplewho had gathered to watch their triumphallanding. Their gas was getting low. Byrdsaw only one solution. They turned andflew once more back to the coast. Theywere heading for the lighthouse that theyhad come upon accidentally before. They flewvery low, over the sleeping towns and villagesthat they knew were below them, butwhich were shrouded in pitch blackness. Arevolving light pierced the blackness, andthey were at the seacoast. But over the waterit was just as inky black as over the land.

“Balchen was at the wheel. Byrd gavethe signal to land. They threw over a lineof flares that gave them some idea as towhere to land, then descended. The forceof their impact with the water sheared offthe landing gear. The plane sank to thewings in the water, and the fuselage filledrapidly.

“Byrd was thrown into the water. Heswam to the plane. Noville was climbingout. The other two were nowhere to beseen. Byrd called to them. He swam overto the plane, which was almost submerged.Balchen was caught in the wreckage, butmanaged to extricate himself. Then Acostaswam up from nowhere. His collar bonewas broken. But a hasty survey assuredByrd that the others were all right. Almostexhausted, they got out the collapsible boat, blew it up, and paddled to shore. It wasa mile to the village, and they trudged wearilyon.

“They certainly did not look like a triumphalparade when they got to the village, four tired, wet, dirty men, who lookedmore like tramps than aviators. They triedto arouse the villagers, but they could not.A small boy riding by became frightenedwhen they spoke to him, and scooted away.Finally they approached the lighthouse, aroused the lighthouse keeper and his wife, and made them understand what had happened.

“From then on, all was beer and skittles.There wasn’t enough that the villagers coulddo for the Americans who had landed sounceremoniously in their midst – or practicallyin their midst. They rescued theplane, and the mail that was in it.

“Paris was next, and the real triumphalparade started then. The flyers were almostoverwhelmed with the wonderful greetingthat the Parisians gave them. It was worthall of the hours of agony that they had gonethrough. They had accomplished whatthey had set out to accomplish, after all.

“Then America. Once more the Americanpeople welcomed Dick Byrd back as thehero of the moment. He had excited interestin aviation; he had proved many valuablescientific facts; he had proved a herounder trying circumstances; he had addedto the friendly feeling felt by the French forthe American people; in fact, he had done allthings except one. He had not extinguishedhis spirit of adventure.

“No sooner was Admiral Byrd back fromhis trip across the Atlantic when he wasplanning another voyage, this time reflectingagain the boyish dreams of his early youth.He planned to go to the South Pole to makecertain scientific studies, and to fly across thePole when he was there.

“Very carefully he began to plan. Hefirst obtained his ships. The Larsen and theSir James Clark Ross were to be used as supplyships. The City of New York, once anice breaker, was to be his chief ship, and theEleanor Bolling, named in honor of hismother, was to be the chief supply ship. Hetook, too, four planes, three for observationflights, and the huge three-motoredFokker, the Floyd Bennett. Every divisionof the expedition was equipped with radiosets. Every division of the expedition wasfurther so equipped that in case of accident,or in case it should be separated from anyother unit, it could rescue itself.

“Among the preparations was the purchaseof about a hundred eskimo dogs, which wereto be used in the arctic. Ships, planes, cameras, radios, footgear, and a thousand otherdetails Byrd had to plan carefully. Almosta million dollars had been spent before theships even left New York.

“In the midst of the preparations AdmiralByrd received a terrible blow. Thiswas the death of Floyd Bennett, that someonehas already told about. Bennett flew tothe aid of Major Fitzmaurice, Captain Koebland Baron von Huenefeld, who had beenforced down in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, during the first east to west crossing of theAtlantic. At Murray Bay, Quebec, he developedinfluenza, which turned intopneumonia. He died in Quebec. Colonel Lindberghrushed to Quebec with serum to savehis life, but it was of no use. Floyd Bennett, whom everybody loved, and one of thegreatest pilots of his day, had flown his lastflight.

“It meant a loss to all aviation, but toDick Byrd especially, since the two men hadbeen close friends. There was no man withwhom Byrd would rather have flown overthe South Pole, as he had flown over theNorth. In memory of his friend, Byrdnamed the plane with which he was to flyover the Pole the Floyd Bennett.

“Preparations had to go on. It came timeto choose the crew and staff which was togo with Byrd, to be gone for such a longtime in the arctic wastes. The prospect doesnot seem inviting – the leaving of comfortablehomes, of families, in order to spend ayear in the coldest climate that will sustainlife. But so great is the spirit of adventurein man that 15,000 people volunteered to goon the expedition. The men who were finallychosen were picked men – all physicallyin perfect health, and mentally alert. True, some of them shipped in positions in whichthey had had no training, but Admiral Byrdcould safely say that he had made a mistakein no case. Every man that he chose provedhimself worthy of the choice.

“Finally all was ready. On August 26,1928, the City of New York started out.The Eleanor Bolling, a steamship, startedlater, as did the supply ship, the Larsen.The City of New York, a sail boat, got toNew Zealand about the middle of November, the last to arrive. The Larsen’s cargowas shifted to the other ships. On December2, the Eleanor Bolling and the City ofNew York sailed for the ice pack. In abouttwo weeks it came into sight. Then thelatter ship took over the former’s cargo, andwhile the sail boat sailed back for NewZealand, the steamer went on to penetratethe ice pack and steam at last into the RossSea.

“The ship and its precious cargo went onto the ice barrier, and it was on the ice barrierthat Little America, the base of the expedition, that was to be the home of Byrdand his men for a rigorous year and a half, was built.

“The village they built was complete inevery detail. As soon as they landed, themen started in with the building program.There were three clusters of buildings set ina circle about a thousand feet around. Theseincluded the Administration Building, containingliving quarters, dispensary and radioreception room, a meteorological shelter, etc.Then there was the general dormitory, andthe observation igloo. Other buildings includedthe store houses and medical supplystore-house; a Mess Hall, which was reachedby a tunnel, and contained the dining room, and more living quarters.

“The community was a comfortable one.There was plenty of work, of course, butthere was time for leisure, too, and the mencould listen to the radio, play with the dogs, read one of the books of the large library; play cards, in fact, do any one of a numberof things. The food was good. Dried vegetablesand fruits had been taken down inquantities. There was plenty of meat, bothsmoked, and fresh killed seal meat. Theyhad electric light, and plenty of heat to keepthem warm. In fact, the life was pleasantif anything.

“Of course, the most significant part ofthe whole expedition was Byrd’s flight overthe Pole. As in the other flights, the buildingof the runway was the greatest task, andone of the most important. It took thewhole crew of 60 men to keep the runwayin condition. On January 6th, the Commandermade his first flight in Antarctica, making many photographs from his plane.After that, many trips were taken, new landdiscovered, and scientific observations made.