New Britain herald., 1929-12-31

Field, New York. to Los Angeles and returned while only two suns set. On July Rodger Q. Williams and Louis A. Yancey took off from Old Orchard, Me, in their Bel anca monoplane, Pathfinder" for 1 the "Eternal City" Taking straight path across the Atlantic, they landed at Santander. Spain, and. refuelling there, proceeded to Rome. Remarked Yancey on his return: Tt was internally dull"
 Air-Mail Routes
 Railroads and airplanes com- bined on July to open a fast. steady travel route across the con- tinent. Charles A. Lindbergh on that date took off from the west coast to open the route established by the Transcontinental Air Trans port, Atcbison, Topeka, and Santa Fe and the Pennsylvania Railroad. i On the other end of the line the | pennsylvania's "Airway Limited" ! New York city.
 Two "hard-boiled hombres," as they described themselves, came to earth at Lambert Field. St. Louis, on July 30 after remaining in the air APO hours. 21 minutes and 30 seconds, thus breaking the previous endurance record by 173 hours, 37 minutes. Their names were Dale Jackson and Forest O'Brine and their ship was a Cur tis-Challenger.
 | During their flight of 25,200 miles. far enough to encircle the globe at the equator, they com pleted IS contacts to obtain gaso- line. Between them was divided s31,225 in prize money. Their record still stands.
 The Graf Zeppelin, most famous of dirigibles, took off from her ! Friedrichshafen hangar July on her second successful flight to America. In October. 1928, she crossed and recrossed the Atlantic, but had been baked in a second attempt earlier this year.
 hOunu-lnc-N OTTO trulse
 Arriving at Lakehurst, N. J., on August 4, the big ship remained here four days. On August 8 her commander. Dr. Hugo Eckener, lifted her nose in the air and point ed it eastward for a globe-encir- cling tour. With crew of Al and 20 passengers aboard, she travelled fleetly across the Atlantic in the record time of 55 hours and 24 minutes.
 On August 12 she left Friedrich shafen and, sailing eastward. rounded the world, arriving at Lakehurst 21 days, hours and 34 minutes after she left there earlier in the month. During it's trip the air giant maintained an average speed of 50 miles per hour.
 Scientific research achieved an- other victory at Mitchell Field, New York, on September 24 when Lieut.. James H. Doolittle, USA, sit ting in a completely covered cock pit, rose from the field, circled around several times, and landed again guided solely by instruments. It was the first successful demon- stration of blind flying"
 Commercial air line operators, jubilant, foresaw the day when fogs would lose their terror for pilots operating by instruments alone. Doolittlc'S rcar was accom- plished with the aid of an artificial horizon, direction finding radio and an unusually sensitive alti- meter. It is predicted these in struments soon will be standard equipment on high-priced commer- cial planes.
 Largest Diriglble
 Work on the worlds largest dirigible began at Akron, Ohio. No- vembcr when Rear Admiral Will liam A, Mofrett, uSN, drove a golden rivet in the master ring of the Navy's ZRS-4. With gas capacity of 6,500,00O cubic feet and a length of 7S5 feet, she. and her sister ship, the ZRS-5 will far sur pass the Graf Zeppelin, present queen of the air.
 Both Navy ships will carry five fighting planes to protect them from attack These planes will be stored in marsupial pouches from which they may take off. Later, they may be retrieved by a special hooking apparatus the Navy has perfected. Each Zeppe- lin will be further protected by 1G machine guns.
 They will have a speed Of FPS knots and a cruising range of 10,- 5SO land miles. The ZRS-4 was to be completed within IS months from November and the ZRS-5 15 months after the first ship.
 Conquerer of two poles. Comdr. Richard F. Byrd, on November 29, sailed over the South Pole in his Ford tri-motored plane after talk ing off from his Little America, Antarctica base. He and his con- panions spent IS hours and 39 minutes aloft over the cold barren wastes at the "bottom of the world" He was the first man to reach the South Pole by airplane.
 Years Statistics
 Other accomplishments of the year included the completion. of the first all metal dirigible, the Navy's ZMC-2 and the successful testing of "Mechaviator," a device for keeping planes on their true ot