PACIFIC SPANNED BY AIR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20229, 13 April 1929, Page 13

PACIFIC SPANNED BY AIR.

r AN Eric OF AVIATION, STIRRING TALE RETOLD* SOUTHERN CROSS EXPLOIT. NEARLY 10,000 MILES COVERED. The resourcefulness and fortitudo of Squadron-Leader Kingsford Smith and his companions in their unenviable adventures of the past fortnight are reminiscent of the previous experiences of at least two of the party —Kingsford Smith and FlightLieutenant C. T. Ulm. How those qualities wcro exercised by them in the great flight across tho Pacific last year will readily be recalled. It was 8 54 a.m. on May 31, 1923, a hank of mist shrouding tho Golden Gate, San Francisco, when tho great thrcc-cn-gined Fokkcr monoplane Southern Cross set out upon tho transpacific flight that was to make aviation history. "Tho fellows aro crazy," peoplo said, with the tragedy of the' Dole flight, from San Francisco to Hawaii vividly before their minds. But, nine days later, the crossing was an accomplished fact and the world was ringing with the news. No previous transocean flight had ever Icen planned with greater foresight and attention ,lo detail. Numerous load test flights were made, carrying the full load, nnd even 1.10 per cent, of the ultimate gross load carried on the flight, whilo Kingsford Smith underwent endurance tests to gauge his ability to remain at tho Controls /or long intervals without sleep. With an American aviator as co-pilot, lie actually achieved a non-stop flight of hours and another of 50 hours, amply demonstrating tho feasibility of personal attention to duty for a greater length of time than was required on any stago of tho Pacific flight. Tho longest time the machine actually remained in the air during any olio stago of that flight was the stretch of 34 hours 50 minutes taken to cover the lap between Honolulu and Suva. High Standard of Fitness. Few people, indeed, appreciate the protracted physical training the aviators underwent to prepare themselves for tho ordeal. It was customary for Kingsford Smith and L'lm to drive a motor-car on occasions for 12 or 15 hours, immediately afterwards (lying three or four hours and finishing up with more motoring until they had been constantly at a wheel for 35 to 40 hours. In this way they gained confidence that the human element would not "let them down." The iirst lap was between San Francisco and Honolulu, a distance of 2420 miles. "As we "headed out over the Golden Gate, where the morning mists drifted seaward like light smoke, we felt that tho gods had smiled, on us," wrote tho two Australian aviators in their memorable book. "Ahead loomed the grey brown bulk of the Farrallone Islands, slipping toward us over the steel blue plain of the sea. They swept under us and glided astern, dropping down into the mantle of cloud that enfolded the coast. That dim grey bulk was, the last land we were to sec for 27 hours." the First Night at Sea. j

Loaded with 1200 gallons of pelrol. the Southern Cross sped through the air at a rate of 80 knots and at an altitude of 2600 ft. From that height the airmen looked down on a huge eiderdown quilt of white cloud, with glimpses of blue sea underneath. - Smoking was forbidden on board the great plane arid talking was out of the question on account of the roar of the engines, which assumed what the occupants described as "the pleasing grandeur of a symphony of great music." This induced at times a feeling of unbearable monotony, only relieved when some special problem of navigation or mechanics cropped up for urgent solution arid took the minds of the fliers off tho insistent throb of the motors. Tho sun went down "in a blaze of glory" and the aviators entered upon their first night out at sea. They climbed to 5400 ft. for safety and at midnight had the encouraging experience of sighting the lights of two steamers, which signalled back in /response to Kingsford Smith's Mowed-out message sent with the special searchlight with which the aeroplane was equipped. A Tense Weary Task. Writing of their sensations on that first night the airmen said: "It is one thing to remain awake all night on solid earth, but it is another and a vastly different proposition to remain awake before tho instrument board of a big aeroplane out over the ocean. A dozen influences were associated in making us more fatigued than on the land. "There was the continuous keen ocean wind whipping our faces and shoulders. There w.ps the endless hammering of the thunder from the engines at our heads. There was the taut, tense listening for a faltering/note in the song of those motors, arid there was the physical labour at tho controls, especially m those patches where the ship lurched and bumped and dipped. All these things made us fagged, in fact, too tired to sleep." Iho peak of Manna Ken was sighted at 1,0,52 a.m. and an hour later tho monoplane was skimming over tho streets of Honolulu, to land on Wheeler I'ield- 27 hours 25 minutes from the start of tho flight. About 150 gallons of petrol still remained in the tanks. Honolulu to Suva Stage. 1 he second stage was from Jloriohilu to Suva, 3138 miles, the longest lap of the whole i!ight and one t li.it had never been traversed by air before. To .safely accomplish the journey J3OO gallons of petrol were taken cu board. Jho monoplane took off from Barking Sands at 5.22 a.m. on June 3. Everything went well until the radio equipment went out of action and the machine ran into a long series of rainstoi ms. These were anxious moments when tho machine was (lying "blind," like a motor-car being driven along a dark bush road on a pitch black night without a head light or rear light. By noon the feet of the men in the Cockpit were soaked with rainwater, which trickled in from the. windshields About that time, too, they received a momentary fright when the starboard engine started to cough. It. was a tense moment for all on board until the spluttering stopped as abruptly as it began. Everting came on, hut the rain did riot cease, and the monoplane was pushed up to SOOOft. to reach clearer flying conditions, a gruelling climb that cost a good hour's flying in consumption of petrol. It was a thrilling moment when Harry Lyon, the navigator, wrote on a slip of paper at 1130 p.m. that the machine had just swept passed the Equator. It was expected that the dark blotch of (hp Phoenix Islands would loom up beneatli them at this time, but the islands Were missed in the dark.

The rain came down again in a tropical deluge, lightning slashed open' tho black rain clouds and tho Southern Cross bumped and rocked heavily, pitching the occupants about. All night the engines plodded on through tho storm, tho men fighting minuto by minuto to ease the strain on tho machine. When dawn broke and tho weather cleared they sat almost limp and listless in their chairs, completely exhausted. Moreover, they wcro uncertain of their position, as Captain Lyon, tho navigator, had been unable to obtain a good sextant shot owing to the blinding rain, and it was evident tho plane had been swept out of her course. With eyes smarting from lack of sleep they peered through (he morning hazo for tho first sight of Fiji. the sun came out and blazed down with tropical hardness on a sea now turned to burnished copper and by 1 p.m. a minute brown dome sprang out of tho sea 70 miles away on tho starboard bow. Übn elided the machine down until it was 20ft. ahovo the water and at 3.50 p.m. sho landed at tho Albert Park Sports Oval at Suva. She had been in tho air for 34h 30m. The Last Lap to Australia. Ihero was somo delay in hopping off from Suva on tho last lap to Australia owing to unfavourable weather forecasts, but at 2.52 p.m. on Juno 8, tho Southern Cross once more took the air, loaded with 900 gallons of petrol, and set a course for Brisbane, 1881 miles away. It was with rising spirits and hearts full of hope that the four intrepid airmen entered upon their third night's vigil. Expectations of a smooth-weather trip wcro soon doomed to disappointment. At 7 p.m. tho air grew colder, numbness crept over the men at the controls and a savage wind rose. By 8 p.m. tho monoplane was plunging and rocking in a violent storm and rain poured through the windshield, until the feet and legs of tho aviators were sopping wet and almost frozen with the cold. "Wo could do nothing," they wrote afterward, " but sit. tight, hang grimly to tho controls and keep the nose, of the Southern Cross pointed unswervingly in the direction which Iho instruments told us was straight ahead. Thus wo plunged on through the dead blackness, flouting our senses and disregarding our own brains. . . . Now wo wcro tearing through a sodden super-darkness. It seemed smothering. In fact, at times, tho wild thought flew through the mind that it was actually solidifying round us and that we were being pent up in the samo way as in a mine gallery that was sealed by a slide of earth or stone. ... It got so cold about 10.30 p.m. that the motors began to loso revolutions. Tho instruments showed a slight but consistent decline. This was a littlo worrying. Our hands were now so numb that we had to abandon our entries, in the log book." Through the Storm Blindly. " As we flattened out again, or to Tint it more correctly, as our blind flying instruments told us that we had flattened out again, lightning in a rending flash ?ut open the night. It flickered far ahead and just for a second showed us great tumbling cliffs of black cloud that seemed to bo jostling in a breathless raco nowhere. It was a sight that would have filled the man unused to flying with awe. It was quite futilr to seek to find our position by the instruments, circling, plunging and climbing, as we were. Wo abandoned navigation during those three nightmare hours. Harry Lyon was just jolted about the navigation cabin." The storm spent its fury about midnight, although it was necessary to dodge in and out of the rainstorms for many hours more. When dawn came and observations were once more possible it was found tha'i the aeroplane had been blown over 100 miles out of her course. Land was first sighted at 9.50 a.m. " A vague greyness seemed to merge with the cobalt blue of the sea, far on the western horizon," they wrote.--"It was not cloud; it. was land. We felt disposed to yell. ' Bully,' siid Lyon and Warner, as they solemnly shook hands in the little navigating cabin." The land was near Ballina. 110 miles south of Brisbane, and at 10.50 a.m. the Southern Cross landed at Eagle Farm Aerodrome, having crossed the Pacific by air for the first time in the history of man. She had been flying 21hrs. 21min. since leaving Suva. The Flight to New Zealand. The reception accorded the airmen in Australia was marked by unbounded enthusiasm. They were feted like royal princes and gifts were showered upon them by admiring friends and grateful governments. Yet they declined to rest upon their lauiels. Fired by the spirit of the great Australian explorers who mapped the Southern continent when it was a land of unknown character and dimensions, they looked about them for more worlds to conquer. The Tasman, separating Australia from New Zealand, was still virgin ground for the aviator-explorer, the only attempt to cross its turbulent waters by air having ended in disaster by the death of Lieutenant J. 11. Moncrieff and Captain G. Hood. The Southern Cross left (he Richmond Aerodrome at 5 30 p.m. on September 10 and headed a course for Christchurch. The wireless operator of the Pacific flight, Mr. H. \V. Lvon, was replaced bv a New Zealander, Mr. T. H. McWilliam. and tho navigator, Mr. Warner, by Mr. H. A. Litchfield. A mishap occurred with the short-wave radio equipment soon after departure and tho apparatus was out of commission for the greater part of the flight. Severe storms were also met with and the fact that the flight was an all-night one added to the. difficulties of the airmen. Lightning flashed about tho aeroplane at an altitude of 6800 ft. and the cold was so intense that ice formed on the windshield and on the under-carriage, the engine bearer shafts and on the wings. The pilot tube which controlled the air speed indicator became so choked with ico that the indicator was put out of action and the met. m the cockpit were almost frozen. Arrival at Christchurch. At five o'clock in the. morning, when the electrical disturbances abated, Mount Cook was visible through the clouds far away on the starboard beam arid corning through a dense bank of cloud 20min. later a pretty harbour was seen below, identified as the northern part of ihe South Island. The airmen wenl out of their way to pay a morning call on Wellington, circling over the city at a low altitude at 5.45 a.in. Many of the citizens who saw the plane steadfastly declined to believe it was the Southern Cross, knowing I hat Wellington was not on the line of route. Wigrain Aerodrome was reached at 7.50 a.m. and the airmen were greeted by enthusiastic; crowds. In recognition of the aviators' achievement in crossing the Tasman by air for the first time, the New Zealand Government awarded them £2OOO. Kingsford Smith and his companions toured the Dominion in aeroplanes supplied by the New Zealand Air Force and played an important role, by arousing enthusiasm in aeronautics, in the creation of Aero Chilis in different parts of the, country and by helping to promote an air sense in tho Dominion. End o! a Great Flight. The return flight, to Australia was made on October 13, after considerable delays owing to unfavourable weather. Continuous head winds and occasional cold rain squalls marked the trip across. The monoplane lioppei' off from Blenheim, where a special ground was prepared to facilitate taking iff. For tiie first- time since leaving America a rnght landing was contemplated and a course was set for Sydney. The plane mado the Australian coast at midnight at Newcastle, but owing to a heavy fog the fliers failed to pick up the aero, drome and were scouring the country for two hours before the landing was made, at 2.16 a.m. The actual flying time was Villi's. Slmin., at the end of which tho pelrol was almost exhausted. Thus was completed the feat of crossing the Pacific and Tasman Oceans from San Francisco to Christ church by air, the greatest transocean flight in the history of aviation. A total distance of 11,000 miles was covered at sea, Ihe actual flying time being llOlirs, 54nnn.