The New York herald., 1921-01-02


merely getting somewhere in hurry.
Noted Aviator Assures Readers
His Plan of Ascent Is Scientific
The plan, propose is, Of course. not per-
feet. but believe 1t is scientifically possible.
The scientific phase of the matter is some-
thing I desire to emphasize, for / do not
want my friends to think that that bump on
the head just before the Gordon Bennett RAGE
left me any worse off than l was before
Granted that the stunt Is risky, hard and un-
pleasant; granted too. that chance may best
science as it has in the past, in the first at
tempts it is nevertheless scientifically possi-
BILE. There Is quite a sporting chance that
the first man to reach the summit may never
leave II. The sporting chance is with us
when we cross Broadway, and I rarely see 1t
refused by man. woman or child
The peak of Mount Everest could be at
tanned only after months or even year or
two of preparation. This would be true of
either a force which proposed to climb the
mountain carrying oxygen for the man to
make the final dash or Of a force which
proposed to send two men in plane over
the top. Personally simply cannot see the
climbing proposition at ALL Dropping out
the difficulties of the climb, the ice, snow,
sheer places and other obstacles. the mere
raising of mans body to a height Of 29,140
feet by his own efforts is terrific. And when
you add to the mere climbing the fact that
from 49, 900 or 10000 feet on upward he must
carry, too, an oxygen tank and wear ex-
ceedngly thick and heavy clothing, it would
seem that only a superman could do 1t.
The Duke of the Abruzzi. / note, reached
on K-2 another Himalayan peak. an altitude
of 24600 feet the present worlds record,
before he was compelled to descend. don't
know how he got that far. but think he
must have most remarkable powers of en-
md ic n
beaten by any great distance. Herschell G.
Parker / understand, has said he believes
$4,000 feet to be the limit In mountain
climbing.
Coming down to earth. the first task be-
fore an expedition which plans to send a
man by plane@to the summit would be to
locate a base This would not have to be a
movable base such as would be required by
a mountain climbing party. Preferably this
base should be in the lee of the mountain as
regards the principal prevailing wind. TWO
or three bases with sufficient space for a
plane to land. grouped triangularly about
the peak. would be better, but not absolutely
necessary The first big advantage possessed
by an airplane expedition would be the fact
that this base could be as far as 100 miles
from the peak without endangering success
i'm the least OF course the nearer 1t was
the better but 100 miles, Il would seem.
would be enough allowance of distance to
assure a landing field even in the scrambled
topography of this highest Of all mountain
chains. Some clearing of n likely spot might
be necessary. The 100 miles which would
mean weeks of travel for an expedition laden
with the impedlmenta of mountain climb
ing expedition would be a matter of some
thing under an hour for the airplane.
once settled at the base the pilot and the
rnan who expects to land on the peak would
not take off. zoom up to 29,140 feet and ac-
complish the stunt. They would just start
in clearing away the many difficulties, one
by one. But before this is described II might
be well to say something about the plane
itself.
Curtiss Wasp Tripfane
Might Accomplish the Task
The plane used by Major Schroeder and
the plane I piloted in altitude climbs were
not built for the work. Both were war
models which had high speed and high
climbing ability. but were not built for "ceil-
ing" work alone Consequently think I am
entirely safe i'm saying that II would be COM
paratively easy for a good engineer to build
plane which could carry two men, oxygen.
end other supplies. to height of thirty
thousand feet or so instead Of one man and
accessories. Personally, believe the Curtiss