New York Gives Hughes A Lindbergh Reception

Northern Advocate, 16 July 1938, Page 7

New York Gives Hughes A Lindbergh Reception

(Received 10 a.m.) NEW YORK, July 15A decade after New York staged its remarkable reception to Colonel Charles Lindbergh, it repeated it to Mr Howard Hughes, who completed his round-the-world flight yesterday. Moreover, since there are considerably more and taller skyscrapers on Broadway and Fifth Avenue now than then, there was infinitely more torn bits of paper and ticker tape, 'Ac., poured down over the heads of the aviator and his four companions, who, with Mr La Guardia, Mayor ot New York, and President Whalen, of the World’s Fair, in an open automobile, drove through the principal thoroughfares, which were densely crowded. Remarkable Spectacle. It was a remarkable spectacle in the traditional New York manner. Mr Hughes, before beginning the parade, handed to journalists an almost equally remarkable statement. The most interesting parts wore:

“We who did the flight are not entitled to particular credit. We are not supermen. If credit is due to anyone it is due to the men who designed and perfected the modern American .t/yi’»g machine, and its present siati of efficiency. "If we made a fast flight it is because many young men of the United States went 1o engineering schools, and worked hard at the drafting tables and designed a fast aeroplane, and navigation and rac,Uo equipment which would keep this \plane on its course. j A Short Cut. "I estimate that for the total trip we travelled only 20 mile,'? more than the shortest distance between points of the take-ofT and the > landing.” Mr Hughes told a reporter he had been at the controls nil me way round the world, but had ukod the robot pilot whenever he could ' Ho had been attended by great hick on ihe flight, and ho expressed the d oubt that he would over attempt the feat again. The original take-off f um New York had been the most dan.l’.erous part of

the flight, due to overloading, said Mr Hughes. Incident at Paris. He asserted that the delay at Paris had been his own fault. “I taxied to the end of the military runway for the take-off, but decidad the runway was too short, and taxied on to the grass, ’ the flier explained. “I felt the reax wheels hit a hole, and we found later that the tail gear had been ruptured. “Both radio and celestial navigation were nee- sary to keep the aeroplane on its course. Most of the time we flew blind, particularly across Europe and Asia. Re-fled on Instruments. “We did not see a wave all the way across the Atlantic,” said Mr Hughes. •'From Paris to Moscow it was so thick that 1 turned off all the lights and stuck to die instruments. Sometimes the radio was* perfect, but at other times it was no good at all. "My colleagues were the best crew in the world. We used plenty of oxy- | gen. frequently flying as high as 16,000 feet, although it was mostly 12,000.” Mr Hughes added that he had only three hours’ sleep in the aeroplane, plus two hours in Paris.