Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-05-24
FLYING With THE mail
Wonderful Trip Across the CONT
nent.
DANGER, COURAGE and PERSISTENCE


essary to Prove the. Practicable,
and Usefulness of the Airpane in
the Quick Transportation Of lmpor-
tant Letters. 49,.
Now ;the' :airplane. has, more closely
linked, the Atlantic and Pacific: with
the: aerial mail service. 4. A. recent
flight, planned to influence congress in
an appropriation for the service came
near to- failure in the middle Of 1.-The
night at Omaha: A pilot, Jack Knight
who already had flown his share of
the trip, saved the day. The story is
told /. by Donald Wilhelm in May
Worlds Work.
Arriving from North Platte on his
regular leg of the journey, Knight ar
rived in Omaha at ITO a. m. He had
started at 10.44 p. m.
He landed and TAXED up to the
hangar Strictly, 1t wasn't up 10
Knight to fly those 424 miles on to
Chicago, over a course he had never
/ flown. He was hungry and he was
sleepy, he said, after he circled the
| field, "jazzin" his motor by way OF
greeting, as his habit is, and set down.
Bill" Votaw. field manager, let him
drift over, across from the field. to
get a bite to eat. Good "Mother" An
drew Bahm had coffee and sand
wiches ready for him, at lis in the
morning. -
Then Bill broached the big ques-
ton very gently.
He didn't order, or even urge,
Knight to go-night flying was volun-
tary!
But If he didn't so-if he failed to
fly that gap in the run from sea TO
sea-if the service failed to get the
mail across the continent in twenty
FIVE hours or so Of flying time, at the
rate of nearly two miles minute
the next day congress might renounce
even the small appropriation it had
been giving us to carry on the largest
and most significant Of all expert
ments In commercial aviation any
where in the world.
But there. was just one plane avail
able, and that OH had flown nearly
five hundred miles. And there was
iust one pilot, who had travelled half
| as far. .'.-...'~'' ..... -
knight had brought the mail-somc
sixteen thousand letters or so-from
North Platte to Omaha, 248 miles in
the air. But the two pilots who got to
! Chicago from Cleveland, bound west
| to Omaha and scheduled to return
therefrom, could not leave Chicago
one went aloft to try. And Harry
Smith. in an epic flight between I and
| 1l.3O at night, had flown his lap, ali
the way from Cheyenne to Omaha. ar
airline distance Of ass miles-enough
| for one night. So there was just one
plane left. There was just one tit pi!
lot-knight-and he had alread;
flown from North Platte. distance
greater by third or so than the air
| line trip from Boston to New York.
Outside, it was dark and cold. UE
aloft the cloud packs were moving
The moon glowed through moment
then disappeared.
Knight OWNED the situation after
"Bill" had let him get bite to eat
He considered that impending flight
i24 miles at night, over a course nc
! had never travelled even on railroad
train. He considercd-about one min
ute.
Sure, III Co." he volunteered.
And he knew the danger well.
Less than two weeks before he hat
crashed in broad daylight.
Hit it on the Nose.
Now less than two weeks later, Pi'
lot Knight locked himself in a, bare
little room in the shack we use as Of
flee. What he thought Of, of course
doa't know. What he did, we know
He studied map. n map quite like
any other.
At Chicago. 424 miles away. lay vic
tory, and the safety of the cause.
he could get those sixty thousand let'
tiers there early next morning thu
other pilots. Webster, a newcomer II
the service, who had never flown thu
route to Cleveland. and Hopson ant
Allison. would get the pouches t
New York.
He studied that map for exactl!
twenty minutes. Quite deliberately
then, by permission of BILL" he tor'
out part of it. am on my way,
said he.
He started out 'Wire my wife" h
called back, that I'm going to se
this through" -
He crawled into his ship and buck
led himself in. He called off" Witt
the switches cut, the faithful mechan
les turned the propeller over.
Then, Clear"
The blades spun.
He TAXED out, swerved into tn
wind waved his hand, was gone.
They saw him hover a. momen