Airplanes Best For Polar Work

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 639, 16 April 1929, Page 9

Airplanes Best For Polar Work

BYRD’S TESTIMONY GREAT SERVICE GIVEN BY RUSSELL OWEN Copyrighted, 1925, by the “New York Times” company and the St. Louis "PostDispatch.” All rights for publication reserved throughout the world. Wireless to the “New York Times.” Received 9 a.m. BAY OF WHALES, Sunday. The airplane has proved its value in Antarctic flying under the most severe conditions—in cold far below zero, through snow-squalls, over a surface obscured by drift and surrounded by an indefinite horizon. The motors have shown no mechanical failures and the landing-gear stood up. on fields so rough that at home no pilot would dream of tak-ing-off with a load. The most important lesson learned is that airplanes for use in this country of violent winds should have folded wings. “I judge that 60 per cent, of our flying is done by instruments, because it has been impossible to distinguish the surface or the horizon at times during the flights,” said Commander Byrd, adding: “The results so far have exceeded our expectations, and I am now more than ever convinced that in a region so inaccessible as Antarctica the airplane is the logical method for exploration, except where local conditions make it prohibitive. We have flown over thousands of square miles of territory never before seen. We have surveyed and mapped it, and landed on it for closer geological examination and to fix its position. True, we have lost one airplane, but we were pioneering, and. I believe that from the experience gained, such losses can be avoided by future air explorers. So I think the record of this preliminary work speaks well for the use of the airplane in exploration, and points the way to an even greater record, to he written in, not only by us, but also by those who will come after us.” During a photographic flight at 10.000 feet, added Byrd, the temperatures were 38 degrees below zero. The engines began backfiring and missing, due to the lack of heat for the oil system. The oil temperature is normally 140 to 160 Fahrenheit, hut on this occasion it fell to 100 degrees. Lagging two more oil-lines brought it up to 140. There was no further trouble. ENGINE IN A COWLING It is believed that eventually it will be possible to enclose an entire air-cooled engine in a cowling, so that the flow of air may be regulated and an even temperature maintained at all times. Such a cowling would be ideal for Antarctic flying. The starting of the engine presents many difficulties, hut with blow-torches and hot oil we are able to do it in 45 minutes. It is frequently found after a storm that flue snow has drifted in through the tiny openings of the canvas until every space between the cylinders, rods and even the inside of tile cowling is packed with hard snow. The valve-box covers are «.lled with pasty snow and congealed oil, and the entire engine is so stiff that a man can throw his weight against the propeller without budging it. This looks rather hopeless until a heater is put under the engine and it is melted out. Even if the engine could be turned over, carburet ion in a cold engine at 30 degrees below zero Is impossible, but with fireproof canvas above and blow-torches underneath, even in the coldest weather with high winds, it is possible to heat the motor to a temperature of 120 degrees in 45 minutes.

NEW WIRELESS MARVEL

ARCTIC CALLS ANTARCTIC (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) LONDON, Monday. Tlie Copenhagen correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” states that for the first time a conversation has been exchanged between the North and South Polar regions. Hansen, a Danish telegraph operator with a Greenland expedition, got into touch by wireless with Commander Richard Byrd in the Antarctic, 12,000 miles away. He used a 22-volt accumulator.