Famous Flyers

g the Marianne into perfect shape; Bill looked forward to his evening's plans with relish; and Bob was happy just on general principles, anticipa

r, and the Captain, after filling up

ober 25, 1888, in Winchester, Virginia, where there had been Byrds ever since anybody could remember. In fact, the first Byrd settled in America about 1690, and the name has been a prominent and honored one ever since. There were Byrds f

r brother were both fighting for the Confederacy, and Jane Byrd was left alone to manage the great plantation and farm. And manage it she did. One day she went to gather the eggs in the chicken house, and found a great blacksnake had swallowed twelve prized guinea eggs that had been set under a setting hen. She clubbed the snake to death with a

He was a man who met with hundreds of disappointments, and innumerable obstacles in carrying out the plans that meant so much to him and to the world. But he was never

ight. He is not the huge, strapping hero of story-book fame; he was the little Napoleon with a great determination that outweighed a

e the first man to reach the North Pole. Somebody beat him to it. Peary got there first, but it took him a long tim

lone around the world! That took nerve. And not only nerve on Richard Byrd's part, but on the part of his mother! The trip wasn't a regular round-the-worl

e exciting time that they were having down there. Dick took him up on the idea, and made plans to go. At first his mother was horrified at the idea, since Dick was not a strong boy. But with unusual intelligence, she decided to let him go, since the trip would be an educational one, and would do the boy more good than any possible harm that could com

that the boy would not have wanted to miss, although the Captain of the transport coul

ng. The excitement included a lone combat with a gang of angry rebels armed with knives-from which the young Dick escaped only by the fleetness of his pony's heels. T

se. They put him into quarantine. He didn't get the cholera, but all around him men were dying in terrible agony. Finally the do

ea to Port Said, where he reshipped for the last lap of his cruise. It was a wonderful tr

the world, and later across both of the earth's poles. It was the same spirit that made him try out for the football team at V.M.I.-and carried him to the position of end on the first team. It was at that time that an incident occurred which was to be v

to Annapolis. He entered in 1908. He carried his popularity and his success with him to this place. His grades were

pectacular showing, and cinch the meet for his team. To do this, he invented an intricate, complicated series of tricks on the bars, calculated to stir up the most lethargic members of the audien

It gave way a third time-this time while he was going down a gangway, so that he was pitched headfirst down. They tried to fix up the ankle-in fact, they joined the bones together with a silver nail. That is, Byrd thought that they had used a si

short, but he had been married the year before, to Marie Ames, a childhood sweetheart

jected by the Navy, and who doubtless could not have found a place in the army, decided to go into the branch of the service that wo

or aviation that he took to the air. It seems that the air was where he belonged. He was a B

horrible it was to see some friend's plane come crashing down into the ocean, and have to be the first to go out in the rescue boat, in order to do what was possible to rescue him, and to discover what had caused the accident. A warning from the observation tower-somebody was in tailspin.

e wanted to go. He was sent instead to Canada, where he was chief of the American air forces in Canada. At this job, as well as at an

oyage, and was given permission to go over to England and sail the ZR-2 back to America. How tragically this may have ended for Byrd you can see. The ZR-2, on a trial flight suddenly burst into flames and crash

th Pole. But the Shenandoah, too, met with disaster, and Byrd's hopes were again dashed. The Navy rejected his petition to go with Amundsen on t

nt from the Navy. He set about immediately to organize his own Polar ex

expedition which was to be the realization of all his boyhood dreams and visions. It wasn't easy t

ht air-cooled motors. It was 42 feet 9 inches long, with a wing spread

by the Shipping Board. The crew was made up of picked men, and Byrd knows how

from New York for King's Bay, Spitzbergen. They got there on April 29th, after an uneventful trip, and anchored in the Bay. But the problem of getting the

they had to replace them with skis, which seemed ample to sustain the weight

neezed at. Everybody worked-eighteen hours a day, with meals taken on the run. And nobody thought to complain-the morale never broke once. That's the sort of man Byrd picks to take with him-and that's the sort of respect they have for a man who chooses them. Byrd's a leader. No matter where he has come in contact with men, he has won their love and respect, and h

was no level stretch of snow for their start, and this hill had to be smoothed and leveled. The first attempt at a take-off was disastrous. The plane l

he air. At least they would be able to get off. The landing, too, was beautiful. So far, so good. They discovered b

ch they would need in case of a forced landing and overland trek, she weighed five t

nd Byrd climbed into the plane, ready to start. Down the runway they coasted. There was a tense moment. Woul

it had not been damaged. No delay! Off again. They lightened the load as much as they dared by taking off some fuel, then taxied the Josep

would be the former, and not the latter. The weather was perfect. It was a little past midnight. The men of the expedition were gathered about, anxiously awaiting the take-off. Byrd and Bennett shook hands with them, stepped into the cabin of the ship and started down

e so that they could get a perfect view of the land below them, and looked down upon the snowy mountains, scenery grander than any t

t place, they had to hit the Pole exactly, chiefly because that was the place they had set out for, and then because if they di

e formations of ice, the horizon was irregular. But figuring out position by means of the sextant requires at least an hour of mathematical calculation, and by the time the position had been figured, the men in the airplane h

position by means of the sun. Of course, the fact that they had sun throughout the whole trip was an advantage. I doubt if they could have made it otherwise. Navigating up there is too difficult. Then they had to figure on wind drift. The wind,

ere certain of their course, Byrd looked down on the land that he had desired to see since he had been a boy in school. Below them, stretching for mile upon mile was the ice pack, criss-crossed with ridges, seeming like me

s, and threw overboard the empty cans, to relieve the plane of weight. From then on they took turn and turn about at the whe

he was being repaid for all the planning, all the hard work and heart-breaking disappointme

would burn up and stop. Should they land? No. Why not go on as far as they could, perhaps reach the Pole? They would be no worse off landing at the Pole than landing here, and

le. It takes just a minute to say it, but how many years of planning, how many y

flew the plane in a circle several miles in diameter, with the Pole as a center. His field of view was 120 miles in diameter. All this while he was flying

t spurting out, and the motor threatening to stop any minute, and no sextant to show his position, Byrd had his hands full. They lost track of time. Minutes seemed like hours, hours like a

was. But anybody who has navigated a plane by dead recko

that journey. The whistle of the Chantier blew a shrill whistle of welcome. The men ran to greet Byrd and Bennett, and carried them in triumph on their shoulders. Among the first to greet them were Amundsen and Ellsworth, whom Byrd had beaten in the race to

ace, he never gets fussed. He isn't a southern gentleman for nothing. And in the second place, he realized that the shouting wasn't so much for him as it was for the thing that he did. He had brought the United States the honor of sending

r. How about flying the Atlantic? He'd always wanted to fly the Atlantic. Anything that was all adventure appealed to him. So when t

e lives of young men full of the love of adventure, who made hasty plans, or no plans at all for spanning the ocean-who had no qualifications except a great ambition to see them through the great grind that was before them. Byrd wanted to show all fool-hardy young flyers that care, care, and more c

eld out for the tri-motor, the same type of plane as the Josephine Ford, which had carried him over the Pole. There was this to say for it: if one motor stopped, the other two would still function; and it might be the solution to the problem of what kind of plane would cross the Atlantic in the future, when planes ran on regular schedule. They wa

l sorts for forced landings; and even a special apparatus for making drinking water out of salt water so that they would not go thirsty. In fact, they could have survived for three weeks in case of

s for the trans-Atlantic flights, and for the first time in history

at the time several other planes preparing to cross the ocean. Byrd was in no race, however. Of course, it would have been nice to be the first man across the Atlantic, as he h

nctioned perfectly. But as soon as the motors were turned off for the glide, they felt her nose dip. She was nose-heavy. When they tried to land, they knew definitely that she was nose-heavy, and zoomed into th

d to get out of this! They were trapped in a mass of wreckage which might at any moment burst into flames and burn them to death before they had a chance to escape. No

would never recover. But he did-of course. His iron nerve and grit pulled him through. But any thought of his going on the trip was out. This was a blow to Byrd. There was no man he woul

put it in a sling so that it would be out of the way, and went back to the factory to supervise the repairing of the America. It took

ery things that Byrd himself had set out to prove-that with careful preparation, the ocean could be spanned; and that a successful ocean flight would stir the imaginations of the people, making them more consciou

or why. It seems that it should have been Byrd's, and Byrd's business alone, as to when he chose to cross the ocean. After all, it was his life being risked, and his glory if the flight were successful. But a grea

to his defamers. And he went on completing his preparations. Chamberlin, with his passenger Levine,

0 o'clock in the morning. It was a miserable morning, and a light rain was falling. By the light of torches the crew was putting the finishing touches on the huge' America. There she was, atop the hill that they had built for her, s

th his hand on the dump valve, by means of which he could dump a load of gasoline if they didn't rise

held. It was a tense moment. Would they be able to get this great hulk into the air? Along the ground she sped, gathering momentum. Her wheels lifted. There was a shout. She had cleared the g

ched Nova Scotia easily. But when they got there they got a horrible shock. They had run into a fog. But what a fog! One so thick that they couldn't see the land or ocean u

to Europe. But they did not want to turn back. They would take their chance. Balchen and Acosta piloted with great skill, and Byrd took his turn at the wheel while they slept. The wind was with them,

aded for Paris. Then they radioed ahead for the weather report. Fog! Fog and storm, with its center at Paris. This was the worst thing that could possibly have happened to them, this ar

ierced by a queer light. It was the revolving signal of a lighthouse! Their compass had gone bac

death to themselves, but perhaps to many people who had gathered to watch their triumphal landing. Their gas was getting low. Byrd saw only one solution. They turned and flew once more back to the coast. They were heading for the lighthouse that they had come upon accidentall

them some idea as to where to land, then descended. The force of their impact with the water shear

lmost submerged. Balchen was caught in the wreckage, but managed to extricate himself. Then Acosta swam up from nowhere. His collar bone was broken. But a hasty survey assured Byr

than aviators. They tried to arouse the villagers, but they could not. A small boy riding by became frightened when they spoke to him, and

could do for the Americans who had landed so unceremoniously in their midst-or

with the wonderful greeting that the Parisians gave them. It was worth all of the hours of agony

he had proved many valuable scientific facts; he had proved a hero under trying circumstances; he had added to the friendly feeling f

voyage, this time reflecting again the boyish dreams of his early youth. He planned to go to t

the Eleanor Bolling, named in honor of his mother, was to be the chief supply ship. He took, too, four planes, three for observation flights, and the huge three-motored Fokker, the Floyd Bennett. Every divisio

in the arctic. Ships, planes, cameras, radios, footgear, and a thousand other details Byrd had

d Baron von Huenefeld, who had been forced down in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, during the first east to west crossing of the Atlantic. At Murray Bay, Quebec, he developed influenza, which turned into pneumonia.

There was no man with whom Byrd would rather have flown over the South Pole, as he had flown over the Nor

der to spend a year in the coldest climate that will sustain life. But so great is the spirit of adventure in man that 15,000 people volunteered to go on the expedition. The men who were finally chosen were picked men-all physically in per

Zealand about the middle of November, the last to arrive. The Larsen's cargo was shifted to the other ships. On December 2, the Eleanor Bolling and the City of New York sailed for the ice pack. In about two we

the ice barrier that Little America, the base of the expedition, that was t

feet around. These included the Administration Building, containing living quarters, dispensary and radio reception room, a meteorological shelter, etc. Then there was the general dormitory, and t

one of the books of the large library; play cards, in fact, do any one of a number of things. The food was good. Dried vegetables and fruits had been taken down in quantities

greatest task, and one of the most important. It took the whole crew of 60 men to keep the runway in condition. On January 6th, the Commander made his fi

the planes. Men had been sent ahead to cache food for emergency, in case of a forced landing of the Floyd Bennett. Byrd, Harold June, Bernt Balchen an

final overhauling. It was carefully warmed; the oil was heated and poured in. Into the cabin went the dogs, and the dog sledge, the food and other supplies that

hangar to the runway. Balchen was to pilot first. He opened the throt

their load of 12,000 pounds, almost as much as they had had on the America, they attained an altitude of some 10,00

hose center was the South Pole, and then turned back. At a little after ten the next morning they sped wearily into camp at Little America. In nineteen hours they had been to the South Pole and back

e them home. Preparations were made for the homeward journey. It was with joyous cries that the steamer City of New York was greeted, and with pleasu

been before. There were banquets, and medals, and many honors heaped upon him. All over the world movies which had been taken of

ll, the prime force behind the whole expedition. He accomplished all that he sat out to accomplish, and more. The scientific data that he collected prov

h of them was busy with his own thoughts. Or her own thoughts, be

l in that story." She saw her opportunity at last. "I think that Dick Byrd's parents were responsible for the boy's

rkness. "Do you believe in young boys

lf-reliance," said

they ought to fly p

out you. And I'm sure that both of our boys have their wits about them. I think that the e

and then by you. I'm afraid I have no defense." She turned to Hal, who had not spoken at all, but who had been thinking a great deal during the story of Byr

nd gay for a long time. The pleasant evening a

Hal. Do you want to go to the mountains with your friends?" Nobody there knew the ef

he felt the effort that his mother had put behind her words. Should he go? He wanted to. He wanted to show them that he wasn't afraid. And he wouldn't be

o, you may," s

self no longer. "Whoopee!" he yelled. "Hal's coming along! Hal's coming alo

story had made a hit-more of a