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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0145.PDF
FLIGHT, FEBRUARY 13, 1931 "LITTLE AMERICA" ' ' TTTLE AMERICA " was the name given by RichardEvelyn Byrd, Rear-Admiral, U.S.N., ret., to the camp which formed the base of the Byrd Antarctic Expedition,1928-29. The story of that expedition is admirably told by Rear-admiral Byrd in his recently published-~t)ook*. Theauthor does not pretend that his account of the expedition is a scientific exposition of the results obtained. That heleaves to the various specialists who accompanied him. But the tale Byrd has to tell is one which, while not minimisingthe risks, makes the most of the exhilaration which follows narrow escapes. And of these the members of the expeditionhad a fair share. And after reading the book one thoroughly endorses the author's one-word comment on criticisms madeby ill-informed writers in America to the effect that the Byrd expedition was too luxurious and too much without adven-ture. To this allegation Byrd merely replies " rubbish." And, in fact, the remark was rubbish. Adventures there wereaplenty, and if some of the hardships suffered by earlier explorers were avoided by good and modern equipment, thatsame equipment brought with it problems and risks of its own. Although aircraft and radio proved time and again of thevery greatest help—in fact, marvellously so—it is not to the work accomplished with their aid that the greater part of thebook is devoted. On the contrary, the bulk of the book relates the details of the planning of the expedition, the choiceof equipment, the transport of that equipment to the base at " Little America," the building of the camp, and the largeamount of ground work which was carried out. The actual flights occupy but a relatively small portion of the book, andin this respect the arrangement of the book reflects the whole plan of the expedition. All the paraphernalia was collectedand transported to the base on the barrier, largely in order that nights might be made to the South Pole and to variousdistricts east and west of the base. The expedition took something like six months. The actual flight to the South Poletook a few hours. But the former was necessary in order to accomplish the latter. A pleasing feature of " Little America "is the generous praise which Byrd throughout gives to his companions. His was the responsibility, and a very great one.To his comrades he gives all the credit. And even when he is compelled, for the sake of truth and accuracy, to blame afew, a very few, members of the expedition, his blame is tempered by a full and sensitive understanding of theirdifficulties. To readers of FLIGHT that part of the book will probablybe found most interesting which deals with the flying side, although anyone interested in polar exploration cannot failio enjoy the entire book from cover to cover. The three aircraft which the expedition took to the Antarctic were aIokker Universal, a Fairchild single-engined monoplane, and a three-engined Ford. It was the latter on which the flightto the South Pole and back was made, but the Fairchild also did an extraordinary amount of very useful work.The Fokker Universal made but one flight, and was wrecked on the ice by a fierce gale. The story of the efforts of thecrew to save it is well told. On the whole, neither aircraft nor engines gave any serioustrouble. Once a fire was narrowly averted. A canvas cover with a spout to go over a stove was used for warmingthe engines, and on one occasion the cover caught light and nearly set the machine on fire. In the air technicaltroubles appear to have been almost non-existent, due, doubtless, to the thorough and skilful attention given tothe flying equipment by the engineers. Time and again Byrd relates how, while actually flying in one of the machines,he was able, by messages relayed from " Little America," to keep in touch not only with the base on the barrier, butactually with his New York office. The time saved, and what is even more important, the risks avoided or at leastminimised by the use of the extensive radio equipment, is something to be wondered at, and never surely have theblessings of radio been better appreciated than by the members of the Byrd expedition. The general impression^.that the expedition mostly used radio for listening to ]azz" from broadcasting stations. Nothing could be'•luch farther from the truth. Radio enabled Byrd, while . .lV\ from the rest of the world, to direct, from his camp at•Little America," not only the operations of his various • -ledge parties, but the loading, &c, of his ships in New Zealand,-lj even the ordering of a fresh dog team from New York. v"T.story of the flight to the Pole is fascinating, and one* arts the intense nervous tension of the crew when it became m C"f?dry to jettison valuable supplies in order to enable the en a(r"lne to climb through a gap in the mountains. Had gmc failure made a forced landing necessary, those supplies might have meant the difference between life and death.No forced landing, fortunately, had to be made, and so the supplies could be spared. But the decision was not an easyone, and Byrd is revealed by the following sentence in this connection : " The Pole, after all, was our objective." Andso it was supplies and not petrol that was jettisoned. The book is illustrated by some excellent photographs, of whichthe aerial views are particularly fine. Little America. By R. E. Byrd, Rear-Admiral, U.S.A., ret.Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons. Obtainable from FLIGHToffice. Price 21s. net. A COMPREHENSIVE HANDBOOK " AVIATION OF TO-DAY," one of the " Woodside and Wood-land " series of small handbooks which are published on many varied subjects has been compiled by Mr. J. L. Naylerand Mr. E. Ower, Secretary and Assistant Secretary respec- tively of the Aeronautical Research Committee. The bookopens with a Foreword by Lt.-Col. Mervyn O'Gorman, and there is a chapter on aircraft engines by W. J. Stern. Therehave been few books on aviation published recently which contain such a wealth of detail, and which cover the subjectfrom A to Z in a manner capable of being so easily assimilated by even the veriest tyro. It is altogether an exceptionallyattractive little volume, well got up and profusely illustrated, many of the illustrations being in colour. Undoubtedly sucha wealth of illustrations adds very greatly to the value of such a book, and makes it far more readable. The majorityof these are from photographs, and were obtained from FLIGHT. The authors, as Lt.-Col. Mervyn O'Gorman says,are certainly no smatterers, and they know their subject intimately, and therefore the accusation of being superficial,or of a lack of thoroughness, cannot be laid at their feet. The scope of a book like this is, of course, enormous, and atfirst sight would appear to be far greater than can reasonably be tackled in such a small volume. It has been done,however, and in a very successful manner. Naturally, details have, in many places, had to be sacrificed, and there are a fairnumber of errors which one would have thought could have been seen and corrected when reading the proofs.There is no doubt that this book forms one of the best media we have seen for educating both the young and oldwho wish to learn what aviation was and is. " D^DALUS." Aviation of To-day, by J. L. Nayler and E. Ower FrederickWarne &• Co., Ltd.) Obtainable from FLIGHT office. Price15s. 9d. post free. "HOW TO BECOME AN AIR PILOT" MR R. L. PRESTON has just revised his admirablelittle book, and the new second edition is a mine of information for anyone who is thinking of taking his" A " licence. The revision has mostly taken the form of additions, many of which are admirable, but some we franklycannot see the point of. These latter include a list of gliding clubs and regulations concerning the attainment of a glidingcertificate. Exactly why this should be in a book which primarily concerns iicences for power-driven aircraft pilots isa little "hard to understand, but no doubt Mr. Preston, wishing to be up to date, has included these sections, in viewof the hold which gliding has gained within the last few months. It is a pity, however, that when doing so he didnot make it a little more comprehensive, and why he included only 47 out of some 80 gliding clubs now in existence isdifficult to understand. With regard to the other parts of the book, the paragraphs on " existing subsidy arrangements "have been brought up to date. The list of flying clubs has been enlarged and now includes their individual schedules ofsubscriptions and flying fees, including the secretary's ad- dress, but here again there are several clubs left out, whichseems a great pity. The chapter on the technical examination remains ingeneral the same, and is still one of the most admirably arranged lists of the questions asked that we have seen.The paragraph in this section concerning flying to Egypt has been enlarged and brought up to date in a similar waythat the part of the book dealing with " Flights Abroad and Customs '' has been. This latter now includes a list of countrieswhere permission to fly is required, and the time required for making the application. There are also new sections designed to be of great use tothose making flights across the Straits of Dover, and when flying on the Croydon-Lympne air routes under conditions ofbad visibility. Altogether, there can be very little information which the embryo pilot requires, apart from flying instruc-tion, that he cannot get from this admirable book. How to Become an Air Pilot. By R. L. Preston. (SampsonLow, Marston &• Co., Ltd.) Obtainable from FLIGHT office. Price 3s. 6d. 141
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