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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 0710.PDF
MARCH 19,1936. FLIGHT, c Another port of call on the Arctic route—Lake Harbour, Terra Incognita. (Photograph by permission of the Governor and Committee of the Hudsons Bay Coy.) much on the attitude of the Danes, who own Greenland and administer it solely for the benefit of the Eskimos. At present it is a closed country, but it is probable that Denmark would be prepared to open up certain districts, provided the immunity of the Eskimo colonies could be guaranteed. Having said so much in favour of the Arctic Air Route, one may now examine its disadvantages and the reasons why there has been so much lethargy over the development of such a promising route. I strongly suspect that this is a case of men preferring the Devil they know to any other. As a seafaring nation we have a vast fund of experience in the vagaries of the North Atlantic at the lower latitudes, compared with which our knowledge of the Arctic Regions scarcely extends beyond the rough maps and notes jotted down by a handful of explorers. In fact, when I began to make plans for flying across Greenland there were only three main sources available: the report of the British Arctic Air Route Expedition, which had carried out a valuable survey in the Angmagssalik district; Comdr. Wolfgang von Gronau, who was the first man to fly across the Ice Cap; and Sqr. Ldr. Lawrence, of the Royal Cana dian Air Force, who had been flying for a whole winter in the north of the Hudson Bay. Despite the unstinted help obtained from all these quarters, I found that there was a very great deal left to the imagination. For instance, nobody seemed quite certain how low a temperature I should have to cater for, whether radio medium waves could be made to work over the Ice Cap, and what was the earliest date at which the ice-freeness of the east coast of Greenland would coincide with that of the Hudson Bay area. Weather Conditions My worst fears were concerned with the weather, both in the air and on the ground. Ice-forming conditions and the possibility of prolonged blind flying would have proved tremendous obstacles to me, though they would have meant nothing to a multi-engined flying boat equipped with de-icers and automatic pilot. Also, there was the risk of a gale sinking my Fox Moth at its moorings. Yet in practice the worst weather of the whole flight occurred in the Irish Sea during the stage from Rochester to London derry! Arctic weather seems to alternate between ex tremes: if the visibility is less than sixty miles it is " bad," since one can normally see from 150 to 300 miles. Even in really bad weather the coasts of Iceland and Greenland have an unexpected advantage, due to local variations. For instance, the British Arctic Air Route Expedition dis covered that although a gale blew at one point on the east coast of Greenland, thirty miles away it was calm. There fore, by providing alternate lake bases fifty miles apart, we should be able to direct air traffic to the one having fine weather at the time of flight. Winter operation would add the problem of taking-off from water in a machine which could also operate on ice, and until a solution were found the air line could operate only for six months. There httle doubt, however, that the requisite aircraft would developed once the need became apparent. I was also anxious about navigation difficulties: inaccu- lte maps, lack of landmarks or colonies easily distin guished fr°m above, and the behaviour of my magnetic thT— W'ith,in 8o° miles of the Ma8netic Pole- Indeed, IS be maps (scale 60 to 100 miles per inch) were bad and the colonies often could not be distinguished against the back ground of rock from 4,000ft., but the compass worked surprisingly well, even under conditions of more than 500 variation. With radio beacons, an air line should experi ence no difficulty. The thought of how my untrained ground assistants at the various outlandish harbours might behave gave me many sleepless nights before the flight began. A motor boat, carelessly handled, can convert a perfectly serviceable seaplane into driftwood, whilst even a rowing boat can inflict a severe wound on the floats, wings, or fuselage. Yet, in practice, it was only a Londonderry boatman who made two attempts to sink me at my moorings, once by entangling my mooring-line in his rudder, allowing the swift current of the Foyle to do the rest, and the second time by hanging on to my grass-line as I was beginning to taxi away. True, an Eskimo did bring his kayak up under the fuselage just after I had filled the rear tank to over flowing, and began to light his pipe ; but, by the way he smiled when he paddled off, I am sure he did not mean to do any harm. Perhaps the greatest strain of all was caused by the absence of wireless stations at any of my ports of call in the Hudson Bay. Not once, but four times, I took off when, so far as one could see, favourable conditions pre vailed ; and every time I encountered fog or sea mist at one point in the journey, so that I was left sitting above it and wondering whether it would clear before I was due over my destination. Had there been any form of wire less communication with the ground, this strain would never have been imposed. Needless to say, such a defi ciency would have to be made good before there is any attempt to run an air line, and I have heard that the Hudson's Bay Company intends to install small trans mitters at their principal posts. The foremost requirement for any air line over Greenland is ground equipment. Radio beacons, meteorological ser vices and harbour organisation must first be completed, and the introduction of reliable maps must be expedited. Any attempt to run without these facilities is doomed to failure, and one is inclined to believe that Pan American will have established, at any rate, a temporary network of wireless stations before they go ahead with their exten sive programme of ten return test flights this year. Once the ground organisation has been completed the effect of adverse weather will have been reduced almost to the level of European airways. In fact, there is no reason why the Arctic Air Route should not be operated in the very near future, first as a six-month service, and later perennially. It would constitute the vital link in communications between the Old World and the New, enabling passengers to reach Winnipeg or New York within 36 hours of their departure from London, with greater comfort and safety than could be offered by any other heavier-than-air trans atlantic service.
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