Famous Flyers

o be very new to any of you. Gee, I know it almost

glad to stop you if we've heard it before. I don't think

out it." He plucked at the grass beside him. "Gee, it makes a fellow want t

terrupted C

nyway, they told Lindbergh that he couldn't do it. They told him that h

e?" sa

dly. "Did he! Don't make f

ays willing to learn somethin' new. And you'd better get started, or w

" said Captain Bi

is young he can do things. He doesn't just have to sit around and do what everybody else has done before. There's got to be a first every time. Lindy was

as all that," qui

He was prepared for anything. That's why he's always so successful. He has his plans all la

's a good lesson to know by heart wh

1927, on a Friday. That must have been an exciting morning down at Roosevelt Field. He made up his mind on Thursday afternoon. Th

just told his mechanics to get the Spirit of St. Louis ready, and keep their mouths shut. I guess he didn't want everybody messing aro

tart, they began to come around to Curtiss Field, and at two o'clock in the morning there was a big crowd of them standing around in the rain and mu

r the men to start his engine. Somebody asked him if he had only five sandwiches and two canteens of water. 'Sure,' he said. 'If I get to Paris, I won't need any more, and if I don't get there, I won't need any more, either.' It was j

had cleared up a little. And there was the monoplane looking all silver and slick, roaring away for all it was worth. Lindy said goodbye to his mother,

ht she'd go over on her nose any moment. She was over-loaded. Her motor was pulling for all she was worth, but it didn't seem as though they'd ever make it. She went off the ground a few feet, and bounced down again. But then the crowd held its breath. She was leaving the groun

waiting for him to go on. They had all heard the story before, but as the Captain had said, it bore repeating, an

in. "I'm not much a

said Captain Bill. "I'

never wrote a poem!"

en Hal," he said. "I beg your pardon. Go on w

t's about Lindy's flight, and it tells the story of the flight across the Atlantic. I guess it's pretty thrilling. Maybe that's the only way the story can be told-

heir heads now, and bees were buzzing drowsily in the tall grass all around them. Hal had stretched out on his sto

ht, you just stop me if I get to ra

folded behind his head. "I'm so comfortable, I could list

nything," said Bob. "Remember the rul

correcte

excited individuals who'd heard a motorcycle back-firing. But somebody actually did see him flying over Rhode Island, and about two hours, nearly, after he had set out, they flashed back that he'd been

had watchers looking for him everywhere. Lindy left Nova Scotia at Cape Breton, headed for Newfoundland. It was pretty stiff going, about 200 miles without sight of land, and over a pretty treacherous sea. But at 7:1

ame up and swallowed up the plane. This was mighty tough, because if he flew low, he was bound to run into one of the icebergs that were floating in the icy sea. So he climbed up to about 10,000 feet, and stayed there. F

and sleet and rain. His motor never missed. It was a good pal, and no wond

, or somebody's plane, anywhere from 500 to 100 miles off the coast of Ireland, where he was headed. Nobody kn

ds weren't full of planes flying to Ireland, and Lindy had to wait until he sighted a fishing schooner. He swooped low and shouted out, 'Am I headed for Ireland?' The fishermen were s

as so beautif

his maps indicated that the l

t. "His mother was Irish, you know, and it needs mighty

flares and rockets, long before he got there. Maybe they weren't excited when he flew into range! It was about 8:30, that is, French time, but about 5:30 New York time, when Lindy and the Spirit of St. Louis circled ar

ut of the plane. And you all know

" said Captain Bill and

e could see, nobody had paid much attention to him. So he introduced himself, just as though every man, woman and child in every civilized country wasn't saying

Michigan, on February 2, 1902, and that means that he was only twenty-five years old when h

ota on the Farmer-Labor ticket. He'd been a Representative in Congress before. Lindy and he were g

igh School. He graduated from there when he was 16. He was g

to take up mechanical engineering. He was good at that. He'd always liked to tinker, and he got his chance there. He did at college just what you'd expect him to d

had a flying school, and asked them to teach him to fly. They taught him the beginnings of flying, and from the moment his hands touched the con

ot a lot of nerve and never gets excited He showed that when he got himself elected to the Caterpillar Club. But I'll get to that later." Here Bob paused, and looked up a

me," said the Captain. "But rules are

food you can interrupt

atisfied with five sandwiches all the way to Paris, but darned if I couldn't eat five right now." He carried the hamper over to the knoll

he basket so that they could hear the rattle of

on the grass and looking on. "It's your party. We have to

ents eagerly. He dived into the basket. "Say, anybo

sandwich in one hand, a cup of steaming coffee out of the thermos bottle i

lad," said Pat. "We love your stor

finish," said Bob. "I'm

nish? You've got finis

re aren't any rules. Y

on, Bob. We want to hear the e

ce of cake. He shook hi

At least you'll tell us how Lindy saved his

I'm not going on. Anyway, Lindy didn't sav

aid a little whil

came eligible to the Cate

ust. "I must say that you'r

coax him, Hal. He doesn't need coaxing. He's going to tell the rest of the story, don't y

to talk about your favorite nephew. But now that you mention it, maybe I di

n eating a picnic lunch. "You've got Lindbergh

he stayed there really a short time. In f

y not?" a

y student before he went up on his first solo flight

people a thrill. He did, too. He handled his plane like a toy, doing rolls, tail spins, and every kind of stunt imaginable. But the most exciting thing that he did,

ow you your flyer's ability every time. Provided, of course, that he has a fairly decent landing field. Did I ev

Bob, witheringly. "Go right ahe

Have you ever heard of Huatemo? I thought not. Well, Huatemo had never seen an airplane close up, and the two high muckamucks decided that they'd give the natives a thrill by coming back via plane. Hawks had them wire ahead to have a landing field prep

ing field. Imagine his chagrin and surprise, my dear boys, when he discovered, that the off

. "What did he d

ump, and then zig-zagged wildly from stump to stump like a croquet ball trying to miss wickets. And he missed them all, too, except one. The wheel hit it an awful smack, an

d them all

d by the natives, joyously and with acclaim. And not one of the natives seemed to suspect in the least that this wasn't the

a sale of army planes down in Georgia, and he went down and bought a Curtiss Jenny with the money that he had saved from his stunting work. He fixed it up, and was soon off barnstorming again. But I guess t

at Kelly Field. He joined the Caterpillar Club there. It was the first time that he had to ju

happen?" said H

enemy plane pulled up, but Lindy and the other officer kept on going, dead toward each other. There was an awful crack, and their wings locked. The two planes began to spin around and drop through the air. Lindy did the only thing there was to do. He kept his head, st

second?"

O.K., when Lindy put her into a tail spin. They spiraled down for a while, and Lindy tried to pull her out of it. She wouldn't respond and went completely out of control. Lindy tugged and yanked at the controls, but he couldn't get that bus to go into a dive. He did his best to save t

third?" a

Lindy had joined the Missouri National Guard, and was promoted to a Captaincy in the Reserve and Flight Comman

is to Chicago, and was the first pilot to carry mail along this route. Slim had a habit of starting things off. He was the first to do a lot of

could cut it with a knife, Lindy could climb up over it for flying, but he couldn't land blind. He dropped a flare, but it only lit up a cloud bank. He saw lights, then, through the fog, and knew that he was around Maywood, but couldn't get the

Every once in a while his ship appeared, twirling away in spirals, the outside of the circle about 300 yards away from Lindy. He counted five spirals, and then lost sight of the bus. He landed in a corn field, shaken, of course, but all right. He found his way to the farm house, and told the farmer who he was. The farmer, who had heard the crash of the plane as it smashed to earth

ys does," sai

me of a stor

"I've got another p

member to remind me not to for

und, waiting for the fog to lift, until he heard his motor sputter and die. He was up about 13,000 feet when he stepped out of the cockpit and jumped into the air. He landed on a barbed wire fence. Tore his shirt, but the plane was

il the very last minute, doing everything he could to save it. He hated worse than anything to have a plane smash

as their chief pilot. They could depend on him to go out in weather that no other pilot would

e thing. There was the honor attached to it. And besides, there was the fact that crossing the Atlantic would make people sit up and take notice that flying wasn't as dangerous as they thought. If a man could fly all that distance in a plane, maybe planes were

t get them at first. Everybody tried to discourage him. In the first place, he looked such a kid. He was twenty-five, and that's y

they didn't have what he wanted, so he skipped to San Diego to the Ryan Airways, Inc., and told them what he wanted. They put their engineers to work on his specifications, and designed him a Ryan monoplane, the neat stream-lined job that was christened the Spirit of St. Louis. It's a graceful bird-but you've all

runted Hal

of a wheel. Lindy's plane had two spark plugs for each cylinder, so that in case one missed, there was another one ready. She could

ade suggestions to help along Hawley Bowlus, who built the thing. You know Hawley Bowlus. The fellow who held the glid

e after all, nobody likes to be second. So Lindy had to get out to the east coast as fast as he could. He could hardly wait for the plane to be finished. But at last it was, and all the equipment in place. Lindy climbed into the cockpit to test her out. The cockpit was inclosed. I don't know whether I told that before o

ff the ground when he realized that this was the plane for him. It responded to every touch, although it wa

ourteen hours, the whole trip. It was the longest cross-country hop that any one man had made up to that time. His old pals at Lambert Field were pretty glad to see him, and he spent the

about them, and they never get their names in the paper unless they crash. Not that they care. They've got their jobs to do, and they do them. But when Lin

's seat was a collapsible rubber boat, that he could blow up with two tanks of gas that he carried with him. It had light oars, and was supposed to be able to float him for a week in case he decided suddenly t

. You say those things pretty glibly. Do you know what

cessary instruments. I've been meaning to look them

ts on the dashboard are for. Of course a lot of the old flyers, like Patrick, here, flew just by instinct, and stuck their heads out over the cockpit to see what was happening. A real pilot nowadays, though, can be sealed in h

ell us,"

urate at low altitudes, but it's all right higher up. You soon learn by the feel and the lay of the land how high up you are. The exact height doesn't matter in ordinary flying, just so that you keep a good altitude. Then there's that most important instrument, the earth inductor compass. This is much more accurate than a magnetic compass, and it keeps the ship on its course. It operates in regard to the electro-magnetic reactions of the earth's

hat the engine is not over-speeded. A pilot never runs his plane at full speed as a general thing, because he

plane banks left. When the ship is again on an even keel, the indicator goes back to zero. The pilot, when he isn't flying blind, can keep his plane level by noticing the position of the rad

is up, the pilot knows that his motor is running nicely. The gas pressure gauge won't tell you how much gas you have left, though. It's always best to figure how much gas you're going to need on a trip, and then take some over for emergencies. Most planes also have an emergency tank, so that if o

to me, you wo

ng nothing. He had listened intently to the Captain's i

rted. Bob and t

tory being told, or isn't there a

y at the Captain, who appeared as innocent as a lamb. "I'm a

rtiss Field, waiting this lo

t his sandwiches, his canteens of water, and started off on the g

e started from," the Captain said

to tell you. Lindy wasn't satisfied with one great trip. He's been flying since, and has made some pretty important jaunts. Things happened

t now, my lad." He rose stiffly from the grass. "You're mother will be loo

g in the next issue?

the rest of it tonight, wh

great story. A great story." The boy's eyes shown in his pale face.

. "Well, kid, I don't see why anybody can't do great th