FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1926
1926 - 0373.PDF
JUNE 3, 1926 [" FLIGHT " Photograph WELCOMING THE POLAR AVIATORS : Our photograph, taken on the arrival at the Royal Aero Club last week of Commander Byrd and his companions, shows, from left to right: Commander J. C. Hunsaker, U.S.N., Lieut. A. B. Parker, U.S.M.C., Aviation Pilot Floyd Bennett, U.S.N., who piloted the machine to the Pole, Lieut. G. O. Noville, engineer-in-charge of the expedition, Lieut.-Commander R. Byrd, U.S.N., chief of the expedition, Lieut.- Commander Harold Perrin, Secretary of the Royal Aero Club, and Captain W. C. Watts, U.S.Naval Air Attache. be spared. Almost immediately after the departure he dis- covered that Mr. Bennett was eating, and he then found out that several of the things which he had taken out had been surreptitiously replaced on board the machine by Bennett and by the ship's doctor. Among these things were two large vacuum flasks with hot tea, and very glad he was to find them on board. Concerning the actual flight, Commander Byrd said there was really very little to tell. A bright sun favoured the trip throughout, and this enabled him to make use of the sun compass, without which the navigation of the machine to the Pole and back could not have been carried out, as the mag- netic compass was practically useless in those regions. Of land and living beings there was no sign, and there were very few lanes in the ice. Here and there a wide expanse of snow seemed to indicate the possibility of landing, but he was fairly certain that had they attempted to land they would not have found the ice strong enough to carry the machine, and would probably have gone through. When his calculations indicated that they were within about one hour's flight of the Pole, he discovered that the starboard oil tank was leaking, and scribbled a note to Bennett calling his attention to the fact, asking what would happen to the engine. The scribbled reply he received was brief and to the point, and read " It will stop." This was not very re- assuring, but he decided to make the experiment of throttling the starboard engine right down to see if they could fly on the two remaining engines. This it was found quite easy to do, although the speed was reduced to 60 m.p.h. It was decided to open out the engine again until the Pole had been reached, if it would last as long as that, and then if necessary make the return flight on the two engines. The engines did not stop, however, and after the flight was over and an examination was possible, it was found that a rivet in the tank had fallen out and had caused the leak. As soon as the oil reached the level of the rivet there was no more leakage, and the engine consequently continued to run. In this connection he pointed out that great credit was due to Lieut. Xoville, engineer in charge of the expedition who, against the advice of almost everybody, had decided to use a very thick oil for the polar flight. On reaching the North Pole, the two aviators circled round for 14 minutes, and after a silent salute to Commander Peary, the first man to reach the North Pole, the return journey was commenced, and was completed without inci- dent. Commander Byrd had his nose frostbitten through standing with his head out of the trap door in the top, in order to use one of the sun compasses, but beyond that neither suffered any inconvenience from the intense cold, as the clothing worn kept them comfortably warm. In conclusion, Commander Byrd said that he felt that he personally was entitled to no credit for the flight, but that most of it ought to go to Mr. Bennett, who piloted almost throughout, and to Lieut. Noville for the excellent condition in which machine and engine were before the start of the flight. Mr. Floyd Bennett referred to Commander Byrd's remarks that he took very little of the credit for the flight. In point of fact Commander Byrd had by his excellent navigation played a much bigger part in the flight than he had, and he estimated that if they had been something like 25 miles out on reaching the neighbourhood of the North Pole, by the time that error had been doubled on returning along the same route, they would never have hit Spitzbergen at all at the end of the flight, and this would show how important good navigation was on such a flight. Cairo-Karachi Engine Tests on the Cairo-Karachi service to be started next January. ARRANGEMENTS are being completed for an Imperial Air- The route to be taken is Croydon-Dijon-Pisa-Taranto-Athens, ways pilot, Col. Minchin, to carry out a further test of the Sollum-Cairo, and return—a total distance of about 4,870 Bristol " Jupiter " engine, which is to be used in the machines miles, including a sea crossing of 400 miles via Crete. 319
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
