Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-05-16
BUYING BACK HOME
BYRD'S BIC WISH
Friend Hopes Flyers Exploit
at Pole Will Enable Him to
Purchase WeStOver. .

Hope that Lieut.. Comdr. Richard
+. Byrd's successful airplane flight
to the North Pole will enable the
intrepid naval flyer TO realize his life 8
ambition, to purchase Westover. his
ancestral Virginia home, is expressed
by Capt. Ralph Earle. L. :. y.
warm personal friend Of Lieut.. Byrd.
The hope was revealed in an inter
view printed last week by the Eve
ming Gazette of Worcester. Mass.
Capt. Earle is president of the Wor-
cester Polytechnic Institute.
"Byrd's one great ambition Capt.
Earle confides in the interview. lis 10
recover to his family Westover. the
beautiful old estate, which is one of
the SHOW places of the James River.
He is Il Virginian and a descendant
in direct line, though / don't know
how many generations of grand
fathers from the Byrd who built West
over.
Lost Through Reyerses.
The fine old mansion dates from
the early 1770s. AS time went on the
family became impoverished and final
w Westover passed into other hands.
Now the deepseated hope Of the
young Nirginian is to recover the
property for the Byrd family and
there take his wife and their three
children. wish that his ambition
could be realized. Perhaps one of
tire SPONSORS OF the wonderful flight.
or others. may see fit TO make the
dream come true in appreciation Of
his heroiSm."
Capt. Earle made the Acquaintance
of the aviator soon after the latter :
graduation from the Naval Academ%
Early Preferred Aviation.
MY friend Byrd had an ambition
continues Capt. Earle in the WorCes-
| ter interview, Ito go into aviation. /
remember that his wife and he came
TO our house and he discussed his
! plans with Mrs. Earle and me. We
advised frankly against aviation. His
wife. naturally. was opposed to it. But
! he finally decided that this was his
place in the Navy. That was only 10
years ago. In those 10 years he mas
| tered his profession, and this polar
| flight demonstrated that he was in
deed a master pilot.
There are two kinds Of aviators.
continued Capt. Earle. One is the
phlegmatic type, men who proceed
cautiously and surely and take no IN
| necessary chances. The other i
|
/ alertness and skill TO take them out
| of difficulties. Byrd is of the former
type. careful. painstaking. with no
| touch of the daredevil in his makeup.
I'm the Navy we have long reCog-
| niZed these types. We have learned
that a man Of the phlegmatic type is
the better aviator. AS we watched our
flyers we felt sure that certain men
could not survive, that sooner or later
they would fall and die. Some Of
them lasted longer than others.
recall one man who lived to be q
lieutenant commander. But finally
he, too, vas killed. Byrd is not OF
that type.
Let me tell you what he did de
manded the very highest type OF
courage. a greater courage than that
required TO go into battle. In action
IL is, in a sense, a momentary danger
and then again. one has to do it.
whether he wants to or not. But 10
hop off deliberately over the Arctic
wilderness for the North Pole. know
ing 10 a certainty that any mishap 10
the engines meant death. that is
bravery. No man could deserve
greater credit.
Sure He Reached Pole.
There need be no apprehension as
to Byrd's finding the exact Pole. Ny
guess is that he circled about ii -four
or five times. making his observations
and deciding to a certainty his posi-
ton. to be worked out by the exact
laws of navigation. To show the KIND
of an aviator he is, he concentrated
on the study of air currents and the
various other phenomena which con
front the airnan. He developed in
| StrllmentS TO give exact EnOWlodge
of whereabouts. among them an in
| strument affording the artificial
horizon which must be used at tbs
Pole in making observations by the
sun. Peary used an artificial horizon
of mercury. Byrd's instrument &C
complishes the result in another way
but with undoubted accuracy. Sci
ence will accept his observations Il
prove that he literally did fly ovel
the Pole"