Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-22


airy, the uninhabited Arctic
will be like an open park in
the center of the inhabited city of the world
and air voyagers win cross it like taxi riders
crossing a park"
When Vilhjalmur Stefansson, one of the
greatest polar explorers of all time made this
Statement seven years ago people regarded it as
a prophecy of the most visionary sort. 1t was
long before the public had become air-minded,
especially about the Arctic and the idea that
,comercial routes could be successfully operated
in the Far North was startlingly new
Today Arctic flying Is one of the most i'm
portant subjects in the entire field of i1terna-
Stional aeronautics, for the majority Of authori-
ties agree that the most practical air lane be-
tween North America and Europe lies along d
patch in which the stepping stones are BafHn
Island, Greenland, Iceland, the Farce Islands
and Scotland, route first proposed by Sir Eric
GeddeS, chairman of Imperial Always, fed
'eraticn of all British aeronautical manu-
1acturers.
This route" says Stefansson, sis the only
practical one because in order to have a COM
mercially paying route you ought to be able to
pick up airplane fuel every 800 miles or So This
can be done on the northern route and on no
other.
ttTHE particular path forecast by Geddes
(. swould not use ice foes for landings except
In the rareSt emergencies. Much Of the year.
there are no suitable foes, anyway In Davis
Straits and only a narrow belt of them along
the east coast of Greenland. Most of the water
between Greenland and Iceland has no ice in il
at any time and there is never any ice between
Iceland and the Faroes or between the Faroes
and Scotland
However, it is not bad idea to discuss ice
foes as possible substitutes for the elaborate
constructed floating landings that have been
proposed between Newfoundland and Ireland
In true-scale map Of the Northern Henri
sphere, such as included in my book. The ADJ
venture of Wrangel Island you viii the
area which nearly always contains ice clearly
indicated. Within that area there is an emer-
gency landing field OF Ice on an average OF to
every miles. Better than that in fact, for you
can probably never hy miles without a chance
to land.
"These ice foes are comparatively stable,
many Of them, but not stable enough to permit
erection of a really permanent staten on any OF
them. Take the case, for instance, OF Storker-
son. one Of my own expeditions. Storkerson'S
party selected particularly substantial foe and
remained encamped on It for six months while
It drifted $50 miles. But even that selected noe
might have broken up II the conditions had been
unfayorable.
WTF some northumberland aviation enthusiast
). were to arrange an air derby across the
Arctic he might well establish relay stations by
aiEplane transport ON q line OF such noes, the
stations being, say. 800 miles apart and or Q
IN NunnOef. Inc tGmpOE&Iy n20SarS OF maCn1nG
shops would more logically be tents, although IN
Summer repair work could perfectly well be done
without shelter and in Wintertime windbreAks
could be created with snow blocks. Such sta
Cons would not be of really permanent nature.
;. They would not operate fCf more than q few
weeks at time.
'aThere are no special weather problems No
one has ever reported wind of more than 40
miles an hour as blowing IN the Arctic over the
mack ice far from land, though more violent
winds are found where there Is open water near
high land. These seem to be created locally by
the atmospheric differences over the sea ana
land. In the early stages most of the Arctic fly
dng will be done In Winter Tor the Summer ~
q more difficult season.
@Togs rare and unlikely TO be dense IN
Winter. SnowstormS too. are rare. In 1acts
there win be less need for special devices TO
penetrate snowstorm or fog than there Is III
many territories already regularly flown.
"You would want radio direction beacons at
the temporary service stations or the ice and
corresponding apparatus on the airplanes, but
Il believe this Is about to become standard
equipment for all flying In every latitude.
radio telephones would doubtless be used
on the ice no less than on land.
However, it seems almost childish to talk
about stations on the ice, even temporary ones.
The flyers Who cross the Arctic will have enough
ability so that If anything goes wrong with
their engines they can come down almost any
place and have leisure to study the trouble and
to repair it themselves. In special difficulty
they would send out s calls, specifying
what parts were broken or what special help
they NEEDED. Planes would then come from
ineighboring islands bringing the required as
'kistance In other words flying the Arctic
would: x much like flying an uninhabited coun-
TRY that Is largely prairie, the airplanes Landing
ION the prairie and sending calls to frontier
stations for assistance.
hat