BOYS' OWN COLUMN.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 267, 10 November 1928, Page 20 (Supplement)

BOYS' OWN COLUMN.

WITH COMMANDER BYRD TO THE POLE,

ENGINE REPAIRS IN MID-AIR.

Dear Boys, , ..:•'. In the early part of next year the sombre stillness or the Antarctic .Circle will be broken by the hum of many aeroplanes from the three scientific expeditions which are to. explore that mysterious land of snow and ice. One of the expeditions will be led by Lieutenant-Commander Richard Evelyn Byrd, the American -who made an aeroplane flight over the North Pole in 1926. Lieutenant-Commander Byrd was born at Winchester, Virginia, in October, 1888, and at the age of 12 made a trip round the world unaccompanied. After study at the Virginia Military Institute he entered the Un;led States Military Academy, and in 1912 passed into the Navy. After four years at sea he sustained a slight injury, and although out on the retired list, he actually remained on active service, and specialised in aviation. He held a responsible position during the war, and in 1924 volunteered for Amundsen's Polar flight, but as he was married he was refused. He went to Greenland, however, with the McMillan expedition in 1925, and gained much experience in Arctic aviation. Concluding that an aeroplane trip to the North Pole was possible, he approached J. D. Rockefeller, Esdel Ford, Vincent Astor, and Thomas Ryan, and secured support for his expedition. April of 1926 saw him setting out for Spitzbergen in a vessel which carried two aeroplanes, one of which was a Fokker monoplane with three Wright motors, each developing 200' horse-power. On May 9, at 12.37 a.m., the flight commenced, and all went well until they were well into the Polar regions, where engine trouble developed. Pilot Floyd Bennett here proved his mettle by climbing out on the wing, in the bitter cold, and remedied the defect. When only an hour's flight away from the Pole one of the oil tanks began to leak badly, and at first it looked as if the plane would be forced down. However, they decided not to turn back, and cutting out the motor affected reached the Pole at 9.4 a.m.; after circling it 13 times and taking bearings, they flew back to their base at King's Bay without mishap. Such was Byrd's expedition to the North Pole, and we feel that he and the other explorers Captain' Sir George Hulbert Wilkins and Commander ' Douglas George Jeffrey, will. accomplish much for science in this coming year. -