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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 2070.PDF
58 FLIGHT. JULY 21, 1938. HUGHES' WORLD FLIGHT The Lockheed 14 over New York. (Left) Mr. Howard Hughes. ACCOMPANIED by Lieutenants Connor and Thurlpw and Mr. Stoddard (wireless operator), Mr. Howard Hughes last week made a notable 14,874-mile trip round the Northern Hemisphere—not, as some newspapers have almost implied, a 24,900 one round the Equator. They used a specially^ prepared Lockheed 14 transport with Wright Cyclone engines. Mr. Hughes put the Lockheed down at Floyd Ben nett airport, New York, at 7.37 B.S.T. last Thursday night, having averaged 214 m.p.h., excluding stops. The late Wiley Post previously neld the record for a similar trip with a time of 7 days 18 hr. 49 min. The return of Hughes was greeted by a tremendous crowd of wildly excited New Yorkers. The progress of the flight was: — FIRST DAY 12.20 a.m.—Left New York for Paris—3,641 miles. 4.51 p.m.—Paris. 16 hr. 31 min. SECOND DAY 1.24 a.m.—Left for Moscow—1,600 miles. 9.16 a.m—Moscow* 7 hr. 52 min. 11.33 a.m.—Left for Omsk—1,500 miles. 7.00 p.m.—Omsk, 7 hr. 27 min. 11.37 p.m.—Left for Yakutsk—2,177 miles. THIRD DAY 10.8 a.m—Yakutsk, 10 hr. 31 min. 1.1 p.m.—Left for Fairbanks—2,456 miles. FOURTH DAY- 1.20 a.m.—Fairbanks, 12 hr. 19 min. 2.38 a.m.—Left for Minneapolis, 2,500 miles. 2.38 p.m.—Minneapolis, 12 hr. 3.13 p.m.—Left for New York, 1,000 miles. 7.37 p.m.—New York 4 hr. 24 min. Slight delays were occasioned by the absence of interpreters in Russia and the lack at some points of power-worked petrol pumps. The Fairbanks-Minneapolis run was the worst sec tion; it was flown in darkness and at such a height as to neces sitate the use of oxygen. The weather was the worst Hughes had encountered on the whole trip. Record-breaker On landing in Paris it was found that the tail wheel frame had been displaced due to the heavy load, but effective repairs were made on the spot. It is said that the venture cost about /6o,ooo, and that some thing like 7,000 gallons of petrol were consumed. The Lockheed was more or less standard except for the fit ting of tanks and special navigational equipment and the deletion of some of the cabin windows. Two-speed super chargers were fitted to the Wright C3'clone G engines and the airscrews were of the new Hamilton Hydromatic type, described in this issue. The machine used was Hughes' third choice for the flight. In the first instance he had a Douglas DCi tanked for a range of 5,000 miles (this machine is now in this country as the property of Lord Forbes), and secondly lie intended to use a Sikorsky S-43 twin-engined amphibian. The Lockheed 14 has been adopted, in modified form, by the Royal Air Force as a general reconnaisance machine and bomber. This map shows "hops" and times at a glance. It also indicates that to talk of Hughes' achievement as a "world- encircling '' flight is hardly accurate.
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