Show C 4 a at fit 1 0 aada 4 dew IA stratosphere balloon poised for the takeoff take off icil Ire pAred by national society Wasi hington u D C service ANOTHER A NOTHER III flight lit by a huge bal loon into the stratosphere will be made in the summer ot of 1935 jointly jol fitly by the national geographic society and the united states army air corps capt albert W stevens will be in command of the balloon which will be piloted by capt orril A anderson like ike the expedition of last summer the flight of 1935 will take oil off from a natural basin in the black hills eleven miles west of rapid city S D preparation for such a flight Is a 8 stupendous task from the inception of the last flight in the fall of 1033 1933 with the guidance of the scientific committee appointed by president grosvenor of the national geographic society no vains pains were spared to produce the best possible instruments and equipment for collecting scientific data in the stratosphere the instruments were to be of full fall laboratory size to insure the greatest attainable acen accuracy this meant that some would te be both bulky and heavy to house these many large instruments st it became necessary to design a gondola larger than any that had bad previously been sent aloft finally it became apparent that to lift the gondola and its cargo of apparatus high into the strato a Bp phere a very large balloon would be required experts were con suited skilled to in such construction and a contract was given to design and build a larger balloon than any previously constructed a bag which when fully inflated would contain cubic feet of gas it required five months to fashion this gigantic bag and into it went two and a third acres of rubber im cloth made from long staple cotton willie while it was being built work was begun on the gondola a globe of dow metal lighter than aluminum and in a score of laboratories and workshops from new york to california specially designed instruments were being constructed meanwhile a site for the base camp of the stratosphere flight had been chosen in western south dakota three considerations determined ter mined this choice the point was far enough west to permit the balloon to drift even or miles to the eastward and still come to earth in relatively level conn country try the record of the region was promising for good summer flying weather and the site was sheltered from surface winds making the Strat early in june a camp was wag established in the deep cliff enair cled natural bowl near rapid city it quickly became known as the Strat capt orvil orall A anderson andersen was on the scene from the start under his capable direction the camp developed from an almost deserted basin into a bustling little village of more than a hundred inhabitants inhabitant three telephone lines and two radio stations kept the Strat in ID communication with the outside world and there were two telegraph wires leading to teletype machines which constantly rapped out weather information from points as far away alvay as alaska cuba and iceland the special weather station set up at the camp through the cooperation of the united states weather bureau the signal corps and the air corps ranked in fullness of information furnished with the halt half dozen most important weather stations in the united states two weeks after the camp was started captain stevens went out by plane from washington taking some come special instruments A few days later maj william E kepner flew into rapid city and the night flight personnel was complete freight F car loads loada and truck loads of the file equipment necessary tor for a stratosphere flight had been converging on the Strat for weeks three railroad cars filled with heavy steel cylinders contain ine inc corri Drewa hydrogen arrived in rapid city thanks to the generous operation cooperation co of the national guards men of south dakota and their fleet of trucks these tons of steel were soon neatly plied piled along one edge of the camp collecting the equipment the gondola rolled in by truck after a journey of more than a thousand miles from f rom midland mich and was installed in the commodious gondola house the entire front of which could be opened up A few days later another truck brought baroug lit in a box the balloon bag which weighed wel glied two and a half tons the largest truck of all to traverse the winding road down into the basin arrived the following week the liquid oxygen gener generator atol truck of the army air corps it supplied the essential liquid oxygen used to make breathable air a ir inside the gondola during the flyers stay in the stratosphere several airplane loads of instruments were flown to rapid city and daily freight and express packages arrived their contents varying in from machine shop tools to dell delicate vacuum tubes for many weeks the gondola house was the center of activities that started sometimes as early as four in the morning and often lasting until nine at night numerous instruments and pieces of equipment had to be hs assembled sem bled tested some of them altered and all of them firmly fixed in the places assigned to them on the gondola shelves or hanging ban ing from the gondola root roof the last of the preparatory work was completed on july 9 from that time on the light flight could have taken place any day so far as the equipment was concerned but it was essential that the flight be wade made during very special and unfortunately rare weather conditions covering the area for seven or eight hundred miles east at last july 27 on the long awaited high pressure area hail drifted in from the west and promised for the next day the condition wanted both at the Strat and na to the east when at noon major kepner announced officially that the weather was satisfactory for the night flight and that the inflation would begin that evening the camp was galvanized into activity off for the stratosphere guests were barred from the floor of the bowl only men with dell nite cite jobs to perform were permitted in the camp the balloon box wa opened and the huge billowy mass of fabric was spread out on the clr cular sawdust covered canvas pro bed that had been prepared for it bus load after bus load of soldiers arrived from fort meade they were the men of the ground crew who were to hold the balloon in leash while the hydrogen poured into it it on all sides the moved ahead like clockwork at dusk the floodlights flood lights la in the great ring rin that extended around the floor of the basin were turned on and a little later the hydrogen gas was started through the canvas tubo into the vast maw mav of the balloon by shortly after five there remained only a few last minute tasks to be performed the careful placing of rope ends for valve and rip cords the lashing on of a small mail sack back the loading of warm fly ing clothes and parachutes captain anderson and Cap captain cantal tal stevens climbed into the gondola major kepner to its ita rope enclosed top the better to direct the takeoff take off or the outer ropes were dropped only the gondola and ten small hand ropes kopca attached to ithell the gigantic bag of gasto the earth major kepner directed the final ground activity of the night flight before the ascent the weighing off ropes hopes were slackened to test the balloons lift ballast was adjusted until the upward pull seemed just right then came the order cast ont the balloon was away lor for ftc be |