"LINDY-THE GREATEST”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 237, 6 October 1928, Page 10

"LINDY-THE GREATEST”

TALKING OF ACES SOUTHERN CROSS MECHANIC’S OPINION “Yes; I knew all those birds and many more,” said Mr C. U. Maidment at Richmond Airdrome, when the names of a few famous aviators were mentioned to him by a Sydney reporter. Mr Maidment was putting the final touches to the engines of the ►Southern Cross. “Lindbergh is andoubtedly the biggest of them all,” he continued. “That rellow knows his job. After his return from France I took care of his engine and the engine in the escorting plane during his three months’ tour of the States- During the tour we visited 92 cities and towns, and 1 never saw Lindy lose his head once or show the slightest sign of suffering from a swollen head. That’s the first thing anyone notices about these really big birds in the flying game. Without exception they are all modest in manner and very strong on silence, if you understand me. I mean they never say a word more than is necessary and they never ‘skito.

A Diplomat “Lindy’s tour was to boost commercial aviation, as sponsored by the Guggenheim Fund. Old man Guggenheim, you know, left a whack of dollars, the interest on which goes to the encouragement of commercial aeronautics and the upkeep of the Guggenheim Aeronautical University. Now, if a couple of your Australian millionaires. . . “Among all the great aviators whom I have known intimately, Lindbergh was the most diplomatic. In fact, the young fellow was a born diplomat. H e would have made a fine plenipotentiary or whatever you call a man that has the say-so in international affairs. Whenever Lindy makes a statement it’s well thought out before he makes it. See him among flying men and he’s just one of the gang. No swank at all. Just like Smithy and Ulm. They’re not changed at all, either, since they’ve done something worth while. “I was a personal friend of Clarence Chamberlin, before he made his trip to Berlin, and after he returned. There’s another modest big man for you. Ben Eielson was another. He flew Wilkins over the Pole, and when 1 knew him he had done as reach flying around in Arctic regions as any other man in the world. Ben, by the way, was the first man to fly the Alaskan air mail.

“Have you heard much of Billy Brock over here! He’s the man who hopped over to Tokyo. When he returned, 1 put in a new Wright engine for him to try for an endurance mark. “Although I did not know Byrd very well before \is flight to France in a tri-motor Fokker, I knew his three mates, Acosta, Noville, Balchen —as fine a team of men as ever did big things and said little about them. “Another pair of flyers in whom I had a personal interest was Stultz and Miss Ehrhart. They, too, were in a Fokker tri-engine, when they hopped off from Newfoundland to Wales.

‘Tn this game it is inevitable that you lose one or two friends. Lloyd Bertaud was a personal friend of mine. He and his mate. Hill, crashed in the plane we called Old Glory, after they had left New York and were on their way to Rome. I was friendly, too. with Hinchcliffe, the English aviator, who was lost with Miss Mackay, when they were headed for America.

“The same story is to be told of all these people—they went quietly to work, and if they succeeded there was no swelled head about them. Beside those I’ve mentioned, I was mechanic to Captain Frank Courtney during the war. When I was with the R.A.F. Captain Courtney was England’s chief test pilot, and one of England’s best aviators. Others I knew were Goeban. who won 25,000 dollars in a race from Oakland to Honolulu; and Martin Jensen, who came second in the race. “I should like it put on record that I knew Smith and Ulm before their historie, flight, and J have observed them pretty closely. They are not the sort who will rest on their laurels. I’m staying here until I’ve overhauled Ihe machine for the boys’ next world flight —and even then T may not leave Australia.”