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Show IS SUCCESSFUL III iiis raj AMERICAN NAVAL PILOT MAKES CIRCUIT TRIP FROM KING'S BAY IN 16 HOURS Coolidge and Secretary of Army and Navy Send Congratulations to Explorer; Byrd Accompanied By Floyd Bennett New York. Lieutenant Commander Richard E. Byrd, United States navy aviator, flew over the North Pole, Sunday, the New York Times and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ennounced. Commander Byrd, first to accomplish this feat, made the flight in fifteen hours and thirty minutes, leaving his base at King's Bay, Spitzbergen, at 12:50 o'clock Sunday morning (Greenwich (Green-wich time) and returning safely at 4:20 Monday afternoon. The entire population of Kings Bay turned out to welcome the American's return. Captain Amundsen, Lincoln Ellsworth and the crew of their airship air-ship Norge, on which they plan to make a similar flight, greeted Commander Com-mander Byrd upon his descent. Byrd was accompanied on his flight by Floyd Bennett, chief petty officer in the naval air service. Washington Congratulations on his air dash over the North Pole went forth to Lieutenant Commander Richard Rich-ard E. Byrd from President Coolidge, Secretary Davis of the War department depart-ment and Secretary Wilbur. Mr. Coolidge, on a cruise down the Potomac on the Mayflower, caused this statement to be issued at the White House: "The President sends his happiest congratulations to Commander Byrd on the report that he has flown to the North Pole. It is a matter of great satisfaction that this record has been made by an American. The fact that the flight seems to have been accomplished accom-plished without mishap demonstrates the high development of the art of flying in this country." New York. Commander Richard Evelyn Byrd in flying to the North -oie irom Jrungs nay ana oacK m ni-teen ni-teen hous. and thirty minutes, demonstrated demon-strated that wings could do in less than a day what Admiral Peary, discoverer dis-coverer of the North pole, consumed eight months in negotiating by dog sled. His giant three-motored airplane carried him safely over wastes which Amundsen last year pronounced unsafe un-safe for airplane flight, and the distance dis-tance traveled, roughly 1600 miles, was equal to more than a month's mushing in the Arctic under the most ideal conditions for dog teams. |