The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-05-28
STRENGTH OF NC-4
AN UNTRIED FACTOR
Big Seaplane Started Long
\ Flight After Virtually.
No Tests.
TIME WAS TOO SHORT
All Her Hard Luck Came at
Start-Speed Saved Her
From Fog.
TIME WAS TOO sHoR!

whsn the Nc-t. beautiful to look at
with her cream white wings standing |
out against the prevailing dull grayness
Of sky and water. lightly followed her
twin sister, the NC-3. OF the water Of
Jamaica Bay, May 8. at the start Of the
greatest aerial expedition man has ever
attempted, the old regular navy officers
and young reserves. chief petty officers
and gobs, expert aero engineers and ex-
pert aero mechanics. turned their eyes
after a moments scrutiny from her to
the battleship grey wings and hull Of the
NC-1.
Almost without exception the experts
on shore were convinced that the veteran
NC-l, onced wrecked, and once partly
destroyed by IRE, would be the ship
which the navy could depend upon In
the pinch, or pinches, that awaited the
frst transatlantic flyers. For the NC-t
was practically untried. And the dan
ger of flaws in an untried ship and an
untried airplane are known and dreaded
by wise navy men and sagacious avia-
tors.
In fiction, no doubt, the sleek new
net. glistening in her hardly dry paint
and smooth woodwork, would be the ad-
miration and hope OF the onlookers,
and the time and wave battered NC-1
would be ignored, but actually the NC-1
was looked upon, strut for strut and
plank for plank. as the better ship
And in fiction II would be the old NC-1,
which came through to the glory Of the
navy, while the NC-i buried its untried
bones in the white water OF the Atlantic.
But actually the untried yet true NC-4
went over. while the faithful old NC-1
went down.
No Time for Real Tests.
The Nc-4 started on the great VEN
ture with strength improved. She had, 1t
is true, test flight of forty minutes
May /. when she glided down the ma
Tine railway for the first time. On the
day before the start she was tried In
succession of short flights totalllng an
hour and twenty minutes. This was
not the usual painstaking tryout given
ordinarily and certainly not the tryout
which should precede SO hazardous an
undertaking as a flight across the At
iantic
The lack Of testing was not due to
negligence on the part of the navy Of.
hcers planning the flight or to the men
OF her crew. Only the fact that the
navy flight could not be postponed, that
waiting for the passing of the seaplanes
prevented delay longer than that
forced upon Commander Towers by &C.
e1dents and misfortune.
On the day after the maiden trip Of
the NC-4 It was found that her hull had
leaked badly. which necesaitated leav-
ing her to soak at anchor all day, thus
permitting the water to swell the planks
tight together. The following day was
given over to the further testing Of the
NC-3, and the next to the tryout Of
the NC-4 with her fourth engine added
tn the three with which she few last fall!
Then came disastrous day. A fre
started in the NC hangar, when a spark
from an electric motor pumping saso-
lene few into a drop OF gasolene. In an
instant the right wings Of the NC-1 were
ablaze, the dope" on their surface
making them burn like celluloid. The tail
of the new NC-4 also caught fire. The
lower elevator was destroyed. This oc-
CURED before the men of the NC crew,
nehting the flames with utter disregard
of the tanks Of gasolene. which might
explode at any minute, succeeded in
conquering the flames. And twenty min
utes after the hre was extinguished
these same men started the task OF
getting the planes ready for the start
at dawn on the next day. 1t was then
$3.50 A NJ.
For more than twenty-four hours they
worked. putting the right wings OF the
NC-2 upon the NC-1 and repairing and
replacing the burned surface of the tail
of the NC-4. At dawn the ships were
ready, but a terrific gale came sweeping
across the continent and prevented the
start That day was spent In testing
and correcting the NC-1, which showed
her quality by rising with total weight
of twelve tons in twenty-eight seconds
The next day on the eve Of the star
the NC-% had her second flight, but be.
fore she left the marine railway one
of her whirring propeller blades shearet
on one hand of a member of her crew
Chief Special Mechanic q. II. Howard
Eight minutes after the accident, with
her crew eaddened but undaunted by tn,
accident which deprived them OF an ex
ceedingly valuable engineer, the NC
went up for the test she SO badly needed
And next day at dawn, without evel
having tried her ability to lift fourteen
tons of lightweight from the surface
she followed the flagship NC-3 Off tn,
water at Rockaway on the $40 mile triI
to Halifax.
Three Motors Stop.
Her four motors yfunctioned badly al
most from the start, but despite thi
Commander Read kept her on the patti
of the other planes for nearly three hun
dred miles. He passed Montauk Poiht
Martha's Vineyard. Chatham, at tn
elbow of Cape Cod, and followed Then
out into the open sea beyond pointing
straight for Halifax. One motor, thei
another. and finally third. stopped. du
to defective oiling system, before he wa.
compelled to glide down to the ocean.
An anxious night followed. witt
destroyers dashing back and forth vaini!
endeavoring to pick UP some word of tn
missing NC-4, last seen in the open sci
more than fifty miles from land. TIL
Joy Of Commander Towers and Lieut..
Commander Bellinger over the safe ar
rival OF their flying boats at Halifa;
after a nine hour flight was temperet
by fear for their comrades of the NC-l
At dawn next day. however. the NC
came limping back to Chatham on tn
surface, her one disable motor roarfnI
valiantly.
On the same day mechanics by des
perate efforts dlsmounted two of tn
A0/nH0061l