WINGS OVER EVEREST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21765, 3 April 1934, Page 6

WINGS OVER EVEREST

GREAT FLIGHT RECALLED ACCESS TO RICH COUNTRY r~ EFFECTS OF HIGH ALTITUDES The practical value of the success, ful flight over Mount Everest was emphasised by Colonel P. T. Ethertou, joint organiser of the flight, speaking at the Authors' Club in London recently. He said that it had been established that the Himalayas could be crossed by air, giving access to untapped Western China, a land full cf gold and mineral wealth. The question was whether Britain or Japan would get there first. Colonel Etherton revealed that it was a deep admiration for King George as a sportsman which induced the Maharaja of Nepal, the owner of Everest, to permit the flight over the mountain. The Maharaja told Colonel Etherton. " Your King once got 21 tigers all to his own rifle." He himself, he said, had once assisted in the shooting of 32 tigers. The expedition for the Everest flight was financed .by Lady Houston, to whom Colonel Etherton paid warm tribute. She was, he said, almost "fanatically British." One stipulation was that everything about the expedition should be British. " Most Holy Place " The flight was not welcomed by the Dalai Lama of Tibet, who wrote to the Government of India that he understood that two giant birds were going to attempt to fly over Everest, the goddess mother of the world, and that it rather alarmed him, as Everest was the most holy place on earth. The letter was referred to Colonel who replied that the aeroplanes would be flying so high that they would be invisible and mandible, so that the gods could rest quite happy. Unfortunately the Dalai Lama died. The method of electing a successor was to put into a golden urn the names of six or seven children born at the time the Dalai Lama died. One of the names was withdrawn, but the child did not come into power for 18 years. " So, added Colonel Etherton, " as I see it, it will be 18 years before any attempt can be made to get to the top of Everest." To attain a height of 34,000 .or 35,000 feet a special machine was required, and electrically-heated suits had to be provided. Even the goggles had to be electrically heated, because the temperature dropped to 74deg. belowzero. The prospect of the engine failing had to be borne in mind, but it was reassuring to know that from the top of Everest they could glide a distance of 70 miles, which would take them clear of the glaciers and snowfields and enable them to land more or less safely. The machine was actually tested to a height of seven and a-half miles. Tests fyi Members Prior to setting out the members of the expedition underwent tests at the Royal Air Foice station at Farnborough. They were shut in a, cylinder, from which air was extracted until the pressure approximated to that of the altitude of 37,500 ft. Recalling the experience, Colonel Etherton said: "Two doctors accompanied us and explained what we might expect. 'At such and such a height,' said one, ' your brain will turn, and at such and such a height ycur stomach will go wrong, and at a still greater height your liver will disappear.' " At 25,000 ft. I was' as lively as a cricket. At 30,000 ft. I felt a pain in the stomach. I felt, in fact, that I had not got a stomach and instinctively felt for it. At 35,000 ft. they jingled coins and I could just hear the noise, only slightly, because at rarefied atmos-' pheres there is little medium to convey sound. At 36,000 ft. a large bunch of keys was jingled. I could still just hear the noise. " Brain on Holiday " " At 37,500 ft. a doctor wrote on a piece of paperi ' How do you like it?' and I replied: ' I don't. What about going down below?" " The effect that enormous heights have on you is interesting and amusing. Your brain seems to go completely on holiday, and you have a disinclination to do anything. You go into a state of mental coma and you get irritable." When it was known that the expedition was setting out, large numbers of people wrote asking to join. One lady wrote that she was young, rich and good looking, and would pay anything to go. A man suggested that he should accompany the expedition, and that when over the summit he should be dropped by parachute. He was convinced that he would be able to climb down from the summit to the valley below by evening. Achievements of Flight Detailing some of the achievements of the flight Colonel Etherton said thct they discovered a lake at 23,000 ft., which was not frozen over. Experts thought that it might be a hot lake or a lake of oil. Meteorological data were collected, which would be of use to fliers in future. " We think that we have established that you can get across the Himalayas into the upper reaches of the Yangtse, a country full of gold, silver, copper and iron, and everything you require for the commercial life of a nation," Colonel Etherton said. "This will not be to-day or to-morrow, but it will certainly be in a few ya:• time. Japan has her eyes on the whole of the Yangtse Yallev, and if w.e can get there first so much the better."