MASKED AIRMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 September 1938, Page 12

MASKED AIRMEN

SUBSTRATOSPHERE TRIP LOS ANGELES, August 1. Masked like strange, long-nosed creatures from another planet, nine air line representatives and a foundation Mayo surgeon wrote aviation history on a leisurely, 1,900-mile flight from Minneapolis to Los Angeles, through

the sub-stratosphere. Flying at a height which hitherto rendered normal breathing impossible unless pilots wore cumbersome oxygen devices, this ten-man crew of a North-west Airlines transport moved freely around their craft. Their only apparatus for breathing consisted of a simple, four-ounce rubber nosepiece and artificial balloonlung—hitched by mobile tubes to oxygen tanks. At Union Air Terminal, Burbank, the ten men ended a long, “guinea pig”

journey that began when they hopped off from Wold-Chamberlain Airport at Minneapolis, and for 1,900 miles the nine airline pilots and flight engineers had been under the hawklike scrutiny of Dr. William Lovelace, co-inventor of the rubber mask. Alighting from the Los Angeles-built Lockheed liner, Dr. Lovelace, Mayo Fellow-in-surgery, announced, “It worked admirably.” With those words, youthful Dr. Lovelace, who once flew for the United States Navy, opened whole new’ vistas of high-altitude travel. His mask, which leaves the mouth free for radio communication, lends itself to easy movement in an ordinary transport cabin —thus eliminating the necessity of installing expensive, hermetically sealed cockpits in military 'planes. The Mayo mask, on which Dr. Walter Boothby and Dr. A. Bulbulin, associates of the Rochester, Minnesota, clinic, collaborated, is effective up to 35,000 feet, he said. Beyond that sixmile limit, the rarefied air and extremely low pressure demand that flyers wear strengthened, enclosed suits. Piloted by Captain Mai Freeburg, North-west’s eastern superintendent, and cp-piloted by Mel Swanson and B. F. Ritchie, the great transport made no effort at a speed record as it whipped across the upper United States from Minnesota to Billings in Montana, and then south over United Air Lines-Western Air Express’ Airlane through Salt Lake City. The ship halted twice for fuel. Only then did the airmen remove their light-brown, semi transparent rubber masks. Dr. Lovelace explained the origin of this weird device, resembling a • football player’s noseguard, which gives life-saving oxygen. Back in his college days in the 1920’s he took up flying. Then he joined the Navy Air Corps, and that was where he learned ,of the need for a servicable, mobile, inexpensive, handy oxygen mask. A sojourn at Randolph Field’s army flight surgery base strengthened this notion. About a year ago, three Mayo doctors pooled their skill. This rubber mask was the result. Tested by the army in a pressure chamber at Wright Field, it was found suitable. And now came the ’big trial. The Northwest Airlines transport was heading for Burbank for a routine factory overhaul. Dr. Lovelace “hitch-hiked” and the airmen agreed to wear the apparatus —to drive their eight-ton ship to more than 20,000 feet, less than <BOOO feet below 7 its absolute ceiling. Above 12.000 feet, and over Minnesota, they donned the masks. Ordinarily. as the altimeter needle indicates extreme altitude, pilots’ fingers turn blue around , the nails and their lips darken. Some men are affected even more by the height—their movements become sluggish and their vision decreases. With the Mayo mask none of these things happened. Long tubes from an I,Blb 700-litre oxygen tank to the devices permitted ready movement around the large cabin. The men chatted freely, breathing normally through the nose. Dr. Lovelace was highly elated by the experiments and announced that when the Lockheed returned to Minnepolis after the overhaul of the airliner. the masks would be again used by him and the same flyers. At Rochester, the report of the young scientist will be compiled, criticisms will be invited, and the mask put through its final improvement tests, this much Dr. Lovelace knows, however: The mask draws only a litre-per-minute at 20,000 feet, far less than the old type mask, and it will cost little. <