The Flying World

The hero of the week, Commander Richard Evelyn Byrd (see p. 10), did not keep the world waiting to hear what his plans were for the future. Before rumor could put him into the cinema or vaudeville circuits he announced in Paris that during the next eight years he would try to 1) take 50 men (including ten scientists), many dogs and sledges and two planes, to explore the unmapped South Polar region,* which may be largely free of snow in antarctic summer months; 2) to soar over the wide jungles of Brazil, mapping mountains and rivers; 3) cruise the length and breadth of the Arabian Desert. Asked if he might not try a bird's-eye look at Mt. Everest, Commander Byrd said: "That's an interesting flight but it's not in my line."

The flying world, stirred up as never before by three transatlantic flights within 41 days, buzzed everywhere with ambitious designs. Notable among the flight-planners were:

Maurice Drouhin. In Paris, Maurice Drouhin, commercial pilot, holder of many records, announced that he and a comrade were ready to fly a Farman (French make) biplane across the Atlantic and back. But Charles A. Levine of Manhattan was in Paris, hunting everywhere for someone to pilot him back to the U. S. in the Bellanca ship, Columbia, that flew from New York to Berlin.

Clarence D. Chamberlin, Mr. Levine's onetime employe, was no longer obliged by contract to pilot Mr. Levine and declined the latter's invitation to fly the Columbia home. Mr. Levine approached Lieut. Bernt Balchen, Byrd aide, and Sir Alan Cobham of England, but without success. Then it occurred to Mr. Levine that his homeward pilot might well be a Frenchman. He approached Pilot Pelletier D'Oisy, Paris-to-Tokyo aeronaut. He talked with one-legged Pilot Tarascon, who was to have flown the Atlantic last year with the late Pilot Coli. Finally, after long night sessions, he decided on Maurice Drouhin, whose private plans were virtually complete. He made Pilot Drouhin an offer (reputedly $150,000) which Pilot Drouhin, whose wife was about to have a baby, could not well refuse. Pilot Drouhin said he accepted in order to be the first Frenchman to reach New York by non-stop flight.

Frenchmen were ill-pleased with this explanation and stormed in the newspapers that Pilot Drouhin should have carried out his plans with his countrymen. The Farman Motor & Airplane Co. published a bitter letter about its pilot having been "purchased" and sped its preparations to beat Mr. Levine anyway. The Aero Club of France said it would enter the race too, to insure a French victory.

But Mr. Levine was jubilant. "He [Drouhin] held a long distance record before Chamberlin and I broke it," he said.

Clarence D. Chamberlin, contradicting dark rumors that he bore Mr. Levine ill will, flew with Maurice Drouhin to London in the Levine-owned Columbia, to show the Frenchman its tricks and abilities. From London, Maurice Drouhin and the Columbia conveyed Mr. Levine back to Paris, where Mr. Levine rejoined his attorney and press agent.

Thea Rasche, comely, 27-year-old German fraulein, skilled and licensed "stunt" flyer, dropped into Paris last week in her small sport plane with 100-h. p. Flamingo motor. Her father, a wealthy brewer of Essen, and Mr. Levine of Chamberlin fame, had promised her sufficient funds to go to the U. S. and try to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. She planned to use a U. S.-built plane. She said: "I have a very robust constitution .... I am capable of accomplishing such an undertaking."

Gladys Roy, U. S. aviatrix, left Cleveland last week to fetch a Ryan monoplane from San Diego, Calif. Her object: ". . . to fly the Atlantic before any other woman gets a chance. . . ." Her objective: Rome. Her backers: Minneapolis businessmen.

Reene Fonck, Frence ace, whose transatlantic Sikorsky crumpled and burned last year on Long Island, watched another Sikorsky approach completion on Long Island and made plans for a Paris flight next month. The new ship was built with perforated flat strips of duralumin instead of the tubing now popular at many factories. Engineer Igor Sikorsky said: "There is no way to tell what is going on inside a tube. There may be a dangerous erosion. . . ."

Gotthard Strohschein, whilom Chicago preacher but now an inventor in Jersey City, declared that he had leased a site on Staten Island where he would build an all-metal biplane having a 115-foot wingspread, two 1,000-h. p. steam turbines, storage space for 500 gallons of crude oil and 1,000 gallons of water. This steam machine, he said, would be able to pick up two pilots, a mechanic, an observer and eight passengers. It could and would, he said, fly from New York to Europe in 18 or 20 hours.

Lloyd W. Bertaud, U. S. mail flyer, original colleague of Pilot Chamberlin for his transatlantic flight, announced that he would try flying from Long Island to Rome (4,300 miles) next month in a Fokker monoplane with 480-h. p. Bristol Jupiter motor (air-cooled). Pilot Bertaud's backer was Publisher William Randolph Hearst.

Frank T. Courtney, British aviation captain, was busy last week at Calshot, England, seeing the last touches--spark-plug scraping, compass adjustments--put to a "Whale" seaplane built by the Dornier factory at Friedrichshafen, Germany, in which he meant to fly the Great Circle route from Ireland to the Battery, Manhattan, with a stop at Newfoundland to refuel, relax. The flight was to demonstrate the superiority of seaplanes for transoceanic travel. Seaplane enthusiasts see no reason for risking forced water landings, like the America's at Ver-sur-Mer, in land machines.

Other Britons, Captain Leslie Hamilton and Lieutenant-Colonel F. F. Minchin, planned to fly within the fortnight from London to Ottawa, Ont., or as far into Canada as their fuel lasts. Canadian pilots last week hurried to London, Ont., hoping to be chosen for a proposed London-to-London flight.

Belgians. In August or September, Flight Lieutenants George Medaets, pilot, and Jean Verhaegen, navigator, of Belgium will, they said last week, fly without stopping from Brussels to Leopoldville in the Belgian Congo (4,000 miles).

Richard Grace, cinema stuntman, last week took off from Barking Sands, Hawaii, after punctured tires had stopped his first two attempts to fly a Ryan monoplane like Colonel Lindbergh's to California. He vanished from sight eastward over the Pacific, but soon returned. His rudder was out of order. Landing, one of his wings snagged in a bush, wrecked the ship. Mr. Grace sailed by steamer for California, where his backers said they would rebuild his plane for a fourth attempt.

Ben Eielson, flyer for hundreds of hours in Alaska, comrade of Explorer George Hubert Wilkins in his efforts to find unmapped land in the Polar Sea, sent his name in as a candidate for a $25,000 prize offered by Seattle, Wash., for a non-stop flight from there to Tokyo.

Ernest L. Smith, whose broken windshield forced him back to San Francisco last fortnight when he hopped for Hawaii behind Lieuts. Maitland and Hegenberger, was ready for another try.

At Dallas, Tex., 25 entries were already in for a $25,000 prize offered by W. E. Easterwood Jr. for the first flight from Dallas to Hongkong.

Brazilian. Scarcely noticed by the Northern Hemisphere, Commander Joas de Barros of Brazil, having successfully crossed the Atlantic from Europe, last week hopped triumphantly down the Brazilian coast towards Santos, his destination.

*A continent of unknown extent, perhaps as large as Australia, covers the South Pole, which was located Dec. 14, 1911, by Roald Amundsen at an elevation of 10,260 ft. above sea level.