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Show Aviators of World Rivals for Honor of First Crossina the Atlantic ': XJ0' that the race of aviators to be -. the first to cross the Atlantic ' Ocea-n by air is on in earnest, it is of ''. intercf-.t to take a quick backward - ' slancc over the race track where first '.' one flier and then another has ap-' ap-' geared to make the start. That the -j' Sight will be accomplishec. this year, . r. ' s the general expectation among those -who are in a position to know. If ' .- such Is the case, it win be less than ; ; - ten years since Walter Wellman, in .. October, 1S10, made the first attempt, which, like many early Arctic expedi-' expedi-' '.ions, ended in disaster. " . ; He started out in a dirigible, the .-. -- America, with a crew of five men. Into a thick fog and heavy gale. , Tor thirty-four and one-half hours the j I tviators were in great peril. They .oll'fVere driven by the w-ir.d from a point jJ'"i55 miles northeast of Nantucket to .. ' i point 360 miles pff Cape Hatteras, ; ; ind were at last spotted by R. M. S. P. Trent. Abandoning the dirigible, . the entire crew was saved. : The America was also the name of . P.odman .Wanahiaker's great flyln boat, which was to have made the transatlantic flight in 1914 had not the war interfered. It was built by Glenn H. Curtiss, and the aviator was Lieutenant Lieu-tenant John Cyril Porte, R. N. The winscspread was seventy-six feet and the body length thirty-two feet, with four feet beams. It was equipped to carry 300 gallons of gasoline in tanks, and the plan was to fly from Newfoundland New-foundland to the Azores, from the Azores to Vigo, Spain, and from Vigo to Plymouth, England. But the war came, Lieutenant Porte, who was an Irishman, was called Into service, and the flight was postponed until after the war. The America also enlisted with its pilot, being sold to the British Brit-ish Admiralty. At this time wireless was considered too heavy to be carried, car-ried, and the original plan provided that messages should be sent home at different stages of the flight by carrier piu'eons. Tho following December the announcement an-nouncement was made that Mr. Curtiss Cur-tiss had been given an order for a new plane to be built for Mr. Wana-maker. Wana-maker. Mr. Curtiss built many super- Americas, one-third as large again as Mr. Wanamakor's first plane, and there have been repeated rumors that they were to fly across to the war zone, but for various reasons the flight never occurred. Two years ago it was announced that a fleet of twenty monster airplanes air-planes with 1000-horsepower engines, built for the government in Marble-head, Marble-head, were to fly across the ocean, but this announcement, like many others, was not followed by the achievement. On, April 9 New York was startled by a report that an American flier had actually made a successful trip from there to London with twelve passengers. ,The original tip was supposed sup-posed to have come from a cable In a Wall street brokerage office, and the rumor that the flight had at last been made spread rapidly, but again was followed by a disappointing denial. A new turn of affairs camo two months later, when "safety first" was riven as a reason, for tha flight, which l:d formerly been considered a most perilous undertaking. It was pointed out by W. H. Workman, American manager of the Handley-Page airplane, air-plane, that there was actually less risk In the machines living across than in being taken over on tho surface sur-face of the sea. Through the development develop-ment of the radio-direction finders, ho asserted that the flier would be able to detect the distance of wireless waves from stations on the Azores and elsewhere, which would be practically prac-tically lighthouses for aerial navigation, naviga-tion, and would be in no danger of getting lost or losing much time through getting off the course. The wear-and-tear on the machines by the flight, Mr. Workman stated, and the possible loss of machines en route would probably come to a smaller total than the loss of airplanes in the sinking of freight ships by submarines, sub-marines, if they were sent in cargo boats. Ho proposed to send them across with a full crew and complete load of bombs and other equipment. He believed that 10.000 big American bombing planes in France next year would win the war. L The same opinion was held b 1 Major E. rerfc-tti. of the Italian permanent aeronautical mission to the United States, who was also at work here lasV summer. At that time Italians had under construction a 7000-horsepower machine with which they intended to cross the ocean. Gianni Caproni, the famous Italian aircraft inventor, at the same time made the statement that he had an airplane which would carry a message mes-sage to President Wilson from General Gen-eral Pershing and return the next day with the answer. Had the war continued -another year it is reasonably certain that the flight would have been attempted and probably made during the summer sum-mer of 1919. The necessity for its achievement as a method of national welfare has been removed, and the individual glory to aviator, and also to his nation, again comes into prominence prom-inence as a motive. But the progress made in aeronautics is not affected by the ending of hostilities, and the planes are far better equipped today than when the America was completed com-pleted In 1914. |
