New-York tribune., 1919-07-03
Commander Read Relates
New Details of Flight
of Seaplanes at Dinner
Given to Aerial Victors
Civilian Support Needed
Trip to Europe and Back
in Day Suggested as a
Possibility of the Future

ANY one who says we never will at
tain an altitude of 10000 feet; that we
never will be able to cross to Europe
in the forenoon and return in the af-
accomplish the things that appear i'm
possible now, is a most courageous
person, with courage similar to those
in the olden days who said that iron
ships never would work"
This summary of aerial possibilities
was made last night by Lieutenant
Commander Albert C. Read, the first
man successfully to fly across the At
lantic. 1t was made in the course Of
a speech delivered at the dinner given
in honor of himself and the command
ers and crews Of the other NC sea-
planes az the Hotel Commodore by the
American Flying Club.
The dinner was the occasion Of an
official welcome to the navy's success
full f1iers, and was the most important
ga -herin;: of aeronautical genius in
this city for some time. Major Gen
eral Charles T. Menoher, director of
the United States Army Air Service,
represented the army; Captain T. F.
Craven, director of naval aviation, rep
resented the navy, and the British
Royal Air Force was represented by
Brigadier General L. f. O.. Charlton.
Every leading airplane manufacturer
OF the country was present.
Liberty Motor Proved
y, his speech Lieutenant Command
er Read told for the first time many
interesting technical details of the
first transatlantic flight
II should like to congratulate the
~ t10 no
design, construction and workmanship
of the NC seaplanes," he began.
"Regarding the Liberty motor, pre-
vious to the flight l have personally
had very little experience with them.
and neither had much confidence in
them nor lacked confidence, but, after
making the fight and aftr watching
the way they ran, particularly during
the long night from Trepassey to the
Azores, when every exhaust was
squirting cut it's fame without a miss,
my faith and confidence in the Liberty
motor have mounted very high.
Zone of the chief results gathered
regarding the structure of the sea-
plane was the fact that the future ma
chine built for long distance flight
should be enormously larger. Perhaps
one of the most important steps in
the Improvement Of the motors is the
development Of suitable gearing. The
gearing down Of the propeller is one
of the easiest methods of obtaining
greater efficiency
Radio Records Made
Regarding the radio, the results OBJ
tanned by the radio officer on the NC-4
undoubtedly broke many previous rec
ords He sent messages more than 700
miles He heard Boston talkinp 600
nautical miles away. He copied LONG
message from the George Washington
when approaching Brest, France, from
1,l76 miles away. He heard stations
calling other stations 300 miles away.
When you consider the require
ments Of radio installation on our
comparatively small seaplane, it is
really marvellous performance. The
radio compass proved itself of the
greatest value.
:. Before starting on the flight, pre-
llmlnary experiences at Rockaway ap-
parently indicated that not much de-
pendence could be placed on the radio
compass. In test flight which 7 had
made In another type of seaplane the
results obtained were very unsatis
factory. In fact placed no dependence
on the INSTALLATION when starting on
the trip.
lowing to this fact I almost forrot
that we had such an instrument aboard
and did not really try to use it until
after leaving Ponta Delgada. On that
trip, owing to an error in the compass.
the NC-4 wandered considerably off
the course. 1t was the radio COMPASS
that brought US back again to our line
OF destroyers, before l discovered the
cause of the compass error and cor
rected it.
Radio Compass Valuable
The average distance at which we
could obtain results with this radio
compass was thirty to forty miles with
the destroyers. I look to the radio
compass in the future for the solution
OF the navigation problem of trans
atlantic flying"
Commander Read made an urgent ap
He said:
Aviation is not an art that will,
advance by itself. If we could have
the hearty cooperation and interest in
AVIATION that we had during the war
l believe that within three years we
would be shipping our families back
and forth across the Atlantic bv air
Ihere is an enormous field for deyelop-
ment still open.
y! am a great believer in getting
nehlnd civilian aviation projects. Ali
the arguments for q merchant marine
hold IN the case Of q merchant air
force. There is a much greater reason
Tor the encouragement of the merchant
air force than there is in the merchant
marine"
Senator Harry S. New. of Indiana.
VINO flew from Washington specially
to 9e present at the dinner, said: