—Doesn't Sound Strange
After This Year's
Ocean Flights
By JOSEPH W. LaBINE
In New York a hard-bbiled
America one hundred
minds were focused on some
bergh was piloting his ‘‘Spirit
of St. Louis’’ to Paris and fame.
That was in 1927, only 11
years ago.
A few days ago another trans-
atlantic flight ended and only a
read about it.
ing much attention,
Corrigan, the ‘mistake’ flier.
people hold their
commonplace, and rightly so.
This does not dim the ac-
complishment of Lindbergh;
it merely means that trans-
oceanic aviation has grown up, that
its carefully planned program of
conquering the Atlantic.
The Hughes trip was but a fore-
runner of this summer's transatlan-
journeys that will keep the
humming for weeks to come.
airships of four nations are flying
from Europe to New York over dif-
ferent routes in a series of “survey”
flights. Great Britain started things
off a few weeks ago when the Mer-
cury, unique pick-a-back plane,
soared away from the mother ship,
Maia, over Foynes, Ireland. The
Mercury landed at Montreal 22%
hours later.
Takeoff Load Problem.
This ‘““mother-and-papoose-on-her-
velopment in recent years.
engineers worked on the well-found-
take off with much extra load. Espe-
cially is this
which are held down by suction of
the water on their pontoons. So the
Maia and the Mercury, locked to-
gether, rise from the airport as a
The Maia is a land ship, the Mer-
cury a seaplane.
Azores to New York—the Germans
are working with three seaplanes,
Nordwind, Nordmeer and Nord-
stern. The ships belong to Deutsche
Lufthansa and are making 14 round
trips this year preparatory to start-
ing regular transatlantic mail serv-
ce,
France is experimenting this sum-
mer with the Lieut. de Vaisseau
Paris, one of the largest flying boats
in the world.
Stunt Flying Banned.
There is more to this story of
aerial navigation than meets the
eye, Transoceanic flying hasn't
been merely a matter of building
one ship larger than the last and
seeing how far it would go without
refueling. Since Charles Lindbergh
first dreamed about it during
of aviation have been working to de-
velop fool-proof ships that will run
mechanically,
Until such ships could be per-
fected, the United States was justi-
fled in frowning on stunt Atlantic
ships. That's why Doug Corrigan’s
request for a permit last year was
denied; it's why Corrigan had
depend on a wayward compass to
ago.
Outside of the weight
mentioned above, engineers
problem
have
lantic is beset with atmospheric dis-
Especially is this true
successful flights.
Until a few weeks ago the ceiling
for commercial planes was 20,000
feet. Since engineers have long
known that Atlantic weather dis-
turbances could be overcome by
high altitudes, they have been seek-
ing some means of reaching these
heights under practical conditions.
Although oxygen equipment has
been available to facilitate great
elevations, it weighs so much that
pay loads would be cut too low.
But from Sweden has come word
of a new airplane motor capable of
sustained performance at altitudes
up to 59,000 feet. If it lives up to
its claims, the motor will facilitate
flights through the stratosphere
where weather is always calm.
U. 8. Service Ready.
Whatever may have happened to
her supremacy on the high seas,
America need take no back seat in
transoceanic service. While France,
England and Germany are busy
with their “survey” flights, Pau-
American is preparing to inaugur ite
regularly scheduled service from
New York to London in her mam-
moth Boeing “clipper” ships. Just
LEFT—Douglas Corrigan, whose
“mistake’’ flight from New York to
Dublin recently was frowned upon
with good reason by U. S. depart-
ment of commerce officials. BE-
LOW-—-When Howard Hughes and
his intrepid crew landed in New
York after their record-breaking
trip around the world, which au-
gured well for the future of trans-
how soon the service will start, no-
that in a few
able to slide
about $450 at
New York and buy an air ticket for
London, arriving there less than 24
hours out of Port Washington, Long
Island. Similar accommodations on
the liner Queen Mary would be $316,
plus tips, plus several days extra
Passengers, mail and express will
be shuttled between the two conti-
nents in the new 83,000-pound flying
boats (P. A. A. has ordered six of
them) that offer everything from a
dining lounge to a bridal suite.
The new ‘clippers’ are twice as
large as those now making regu-
lar, uneventful trips across the Pa-
cific, being far and away the most
built. The
first of them was launched last April
and is now undergoing test flights on
the Pacific coast. It is larger than
the Santa Maria in which Columbus
crossed the ocean, and three times
the size of the average commercial
air transport. It has a wingspread
—and hold your breath on this one
-just half a city block long, or 152
It's just
weeks you
Pe ssible
may be
across the counter
Two Deck Airliner.
From stem to stern, the new boat
has been built to parallel an ocean
vessel. It even has two decks, a
top one for navigation and lower
one for passengers. Up on the flight
deck a large crew will be on duty.
Ahead, in the cockpit, the smallest
part of the deck, are the pilot and
co-pilot whose work is largely left to
robot instruments. Behind them in
the navigation room are the radio
man and the navigator, the former
in touch with land at all times.
Back of the navigator is the engi-
neer, possibly the busiest man on
the ship. He handles throttles,
checks engine performance and goes
out in the wing to repair an ailing
motor if it needs treatment.
And supervising all these men is
the flight master, corresponding to
the captain on an ocean liner. He
man rolled into one. In the entire
Pan-American organization there
are only 11 masters.
Luxury Over the Waves.
Down in the passenger deck mod-
ern voyagers enjoy all the com-
forts of home, and more. Except
for a slight vibration and the muf-
fled hum of four powerful engines,
there is no perceptible sign of flight.
Eight rooms are at the public's dis-
posal; one of them seats more than
a dozen persons comfortably and
the others, though somewhat small-
er, have big seats against the wall.
Thus far it looks like they'll have
to omit only one gadget; nobody
can figure out where to put the
swimming pool!
© Western Newspaper Union,
ADVENTURERS’ CLUB
HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES
OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF!
“Mountain Doom”
By FLOYD GIBBONS
| Famous Headline Hunter
| I 1 ELLO EVERYBODY: ;
| Samuel Johnson of Brooklyn, N. Y., has two hobbies, and
| Sam's hobbies are skiing and mountain climbing and two more dan-
| gerous sports I don't know of. You know what sort of a game skiing is.
| Anyone who has ever seen a news-reel of a bunch of ski jumpers doesn’t
| have to be told it's a good idea to pay up your insurance before you try
| it. Mountain climbing is a little more than twice as dangerous as skiing.
| It's a yarn of mountain climbing with which Sam busts into the club
| as a Distinguished Adventurer. For a good many years, Sam has lived
abroad, chiefly in Italy.
| And one day in July, 1931, way up in the Italian Alps, he had
a little adventure that almost culminated in his living nowhere—
neither in Italy nor anywhere else.
Climbing the Doufoure Peak.
On that July day, four Italians—a doctor, a lawyer and two engineers
—along with Sam, himself, set out to climb the Doufoure—the highest
and most difficult peak in the Monte Rosa chain of Alps. They started
out without professional guides, for all of them thought they were suf-
ficiently expert at climbing to get along without them. That says Sam,
was the first mistake.
Sam takes time out here to explain that it was absolutely necessary
to reach that peak before eleven a. m. For from that hour to one in
the afternoon the sun is at its height, melting the snow and letting loose
great avalanches that come crashing down the mountain-side carrying
thousands of tons of rock, dirt and ice along with them.
“And all at once,” Sam says,
to this point, was well re-
unfolded before our eyes
and of some phe-
The five men climbed until daybreak.
“the strenuous work had done clin
warded by the magnificent spectacle th:
The early sun hining on Rosa
nomenon the whole mountain chain became a deep rose color—the hue
that gives those peaks their name. We kept on going. By seven o'clock,
after trying to e two or three feet deep in places,
we seemed still to be a great distance from the peak. That didn
us. From the position we were in it was next to impossible to judge ¢
tance—or even our direction. But by nine o'clock—"'
Lost and Cut Off by Avalanche.
nine o'clock peak didn't seem any nearer than it had at
seven. They knew they were lost then—and they were thoroughly fright-
ened, They were at an altitude of about twelve thousand feet, and a
night spent in the intense cold at that level was pretty sure to be fatal.
we
. A Ar —
was si! Monte because
make headway in snow
that
B y
A terrific avalanche roared past them,
“To build a fire,” says Sam, "is impossible. There is nothing to burn.
Nor is there any other protection from the sub-zero temperature, or from
the icy blasts of wind that sweep the mountain all through the night.”
They climbed for two more hours—and by that time they
were all but exhausted. They stopped to rest on a ledge of rock,
and suddenly a terrific avalanche roared past them not 2a hundred
yards away. [It was eleven o'clock—the deadline for mountain
climbers—the time when they ran for cover if there was any
cover to run to,
“The slide,” says Sam, ‘“‘crossed the path of the trail we had made
coming up. If we had been delayed just a few minutes I rather believe
our bodies would now be reposing on some glacier under a thousand
tons of rock and ice. We didn't dare travel after that. From then until
three o'clock we sat huddled on the ledge expecting every moment to
be carried away by another avalanche.
trying to find the lost trail. We didn't find it—and to make matters
worse, the sun was sinking rapidly and it was getting colder by the
second.”
Took Refuge in a Cave.
The situation was serious. Sam and his companions decided some-
thing certainly should be done about it. But what? None of them knew.
They held a consultation and agreed to hole in for the night—take a
chance on being alive in the morning. Three men rose to find a suitable
place to dig in, but two of them lay still on the ice—too exhausted to
move on.
With difficulty the others got them to their feet. Practically
carrying them, they moved on across a glacier, looking for 2 cave.
Although they didn’t know it then, it was that move that saved
all their lives.
They found a cave and huddled into it. They didn't dare go to sleep.
They'd freeze to death. Their food supply had run out by that time, and
the gnawing pains of hunger added to their intense misery. The suffer-
ing of that night, Sam says, no one could ever describe. But at six in
the morning they saw five black figures moving across the ice toward
them.
The black figures were five professional guides.
someone with a pair of powerful binoculars had seen them as they
pushed across the last stretch of glacier. The guides—men of remark-
| amputated, another a hand, and a third, all the toes of both feet.
Copyright. -WNU Service.
Cameras Barred by Village
Hating cameras and loathing pho-
Staphorst
wear old-fashioned, quaint costumes
and the houses are painted pale
blue. The villagers recognize all
this, but resent the invasion of their
teurs.
The Chinese Li
The Chinese li, a measure of
length, is the equivalent of one one-
hundredth of a day's walk; on the
level, this slightly exceeds one-third
of an English mile, but in hilly
country it might be as little as one-
eighth of a mile.
Colors of Dawn, Sunset
The colors of dawn are purer and
colder than those of sunset because
the reduced dust content of the at-
mosphere causes less sifting of the
light rays. \
Many Moth Families
Most people call moths butterflies,
families.
day, while moths are night flyers,
the former are common sights to
the most casual observer.
are, however,
telling them apart. Butterflies fold
their wings high over their backs
when at rest, while moths fold theirs
down flat.
shaped antennae, while those of
moths are feathered.
Highest East of Mississippi
Mount Mitchell, in the Black
mountains of Yancey county, North
is the highest point of land in the
United States east of the Mississippi
river.
Marijuana Cured Like Tobacco
The leaves of the marijuana weed
have seven or more narrow taper
ing petals. A drying process sim-
ilar to that used in readying tobao-
co “cures” the vicious weed for
smoking purposes.
WHO'S
NEWS
THIS
WEEK
By LEMUEL F. PARTON
NEW YORK.—England pioneered
+ the businessman - diplomat—
shrewdly and effectively, it would
seem. Many of her best fixers
and negotiators
throughout
world hav
men whe
personal
their oper:
Best Fixers
Have Stake
In Deals
the outcome of
They were not
haps, but no more were the t
tional diplomats who knew protocol
perhaps, but nothing about oil
America followed with Nor-
man H. Davis, a financier who
became an effective European
swing man under five Presi-
dents, and then came Spruille
Braden, engineer and industrial-
ist who was our ambassador-at-
large in Latin America until he
became minister to Colombia
last April.
President Roosevelt,
act as an arbitrator
dispute, picks Mr. Br
agreair ‘
BETeE 4 Q
Braden Wise
In Latin
Diplomacy
iomatic representations at various
South Americ He
has been working on the Chaco set-
tiement for the last three years
In his youth, he did ort turn
in the mines near Elkhorn,
his native town, and then +
Yale and became a mining
neer.
He was a second-string halfback
at Yale, but a first string engineer
and promoter from the start, elec-
trifying Chile for Westinghouse,
ganizing the Bolivia-Arge:
ploration corporation, bran
widely in South American
ment and finance. He
wanted to be minister tc
was consoled with Colombia
He is forty-four years old, re-
membered in New York as the
fastest and hardest-working
handball player around Jack
O'Brien's gymnasium, in which
he combated a tendency to
plumpness, creeping up on him
a bit in late years.
He was married in 1915 to the
beautiful and socially eminent Se-
norita Maria Humeres del Solar of
Chile. They have three daughters
and two sons. Their New York res-
idence is the former George W. Per-
kins estate at Riverdale-on-the-Hud-
son.
an conferences
or-
ARL J. HAMBRO, burly presi-
dent of the Norwegian parlia-
ment, is in America for a lecture
tour. There is an interesting cut-
back in his career.
Predicted At Geneva, in
Collapse 1927, he staged
Of League
a spectacular de-
bate with Austen
Chamberlain, in which, speaking for
the small states, he vehemently in-
sisted that the league must find a
way to restrain strong aggressors,
or else find itself impotent and dis-
credited in a few years.
With equal vehemence, Mr,
Chamberlain proclaimed the
trustworthiness of the strong
states and their humanitarian
aims. Warning Mr. Hambre
against overt restraints by the
league, he said, “Along that
road lies danger.”
Mr. Hambro was the most distin-
guished recruit of the Oxford group
movement in 1935, and has since
been a leader of the movement in
Norway.
Returning from a luncheon attend-
| ed by Dr. Frank Buchman, founder
| of the movement, in Geneva, he told
| of the mystic exaltation of the com-
pany and later announced his ad-
| herence to the group.
Although a conservative, Mr.
Hambro is the president of the La-
bor party of Norway. For many
of the smaller nations in the league.
| Arriving in New York, he remarks
| dryly that Norway is old-fashioned
| —she has a surplus in her budget.
i © Consolidated News Features.
WNU Service,
Platinum Once of No Value
Old prospectors like to tell how
they picked “native lead” out of
their pans and sluiceboxes, and
| what they said as they threw it
| away. They are still saying things,
for this much despised substance
was actually platinum, which had
little value years ago. Counterfeit-
ers used it extensively because of
its heavy weight, and gold-plated
platinum coins are still in existence.
In 1828-45 Nicholas I of Russia is.
sued platinum 3, 8 and 12 rouble
pieces that are highly prized by the
coin collecting fraternity. —Detroit
Coin Club.