Evening star., 1935-04-08
STOWAWAYSKEP
OFF NORTH HAVEN
Pan'AmeriCan Airways Ex-
pedition Steams Away After
Unusual Precautions.
BY JUNIUS b. WOOD.

Ey Radio to The Star.
ABOARD S. S. NORTH HAVEN,
April 8.-The North Haven, carrying
the Pan-American Anyways expedition
to establish island bases for the pro-
jected plane service between America
and Asia, steamed away from Homo
lulu after unusual precautions had
been taken to guard the ship while
In port. Police stood guard over the
vessel, and every member of the party
leaving or boarding the ship had to
present an identifying pass.
These strict precautions were taken
to protect the unusually valuable
cargo from intruders and also to keep
of stowaways, lured by the novelty
of voyage to almost unknown
islands. AS the Midway and Wake
Island groups are rarely even sighted
by other ships, while Guam is visited
only by an occasional naval transport,
any stowaway's passage, once Homo
lulu Harbor was left behind, would
be assured until Manila was reached
sometime in June. although he might
have to do considerable work in the
hot sun In between.
Obstacles Are Realized.
Many aboard the North Haven, al
though they often had crossed the
turbulent Pacific before, realized for
the first time on this voyage the OBJ
stacles an airplane must overcome in
covering the same course and the i'm
mense amount of preliminary inveS-
tigation, study and money involved
before the voyage through the air
would be safe for regularly scheduled
weekly or daily flights. Daring pilots
have flown the Pacific, but they used
small planes, and, more important,
they picked favorable weather, even
il it meant waiting weeks for a take
off. Once the regular commercial
service IS started, the big clipper
planes will have to take the weather
as they find it, and even this COM
paratively calm voyage showed con-
stantly changing winds on the long
stretch between San Francisco and
Honolulu that would seriously hamper
q westward flight.
Winds UnfavorabIe.
Careful observations during the voy-
age by meteorologiStS aboard the
North Haven showed a favorable tail
wind on only one day Considering
the comparative speed of a slow
freighter and a fast airplane, this
might mean only an hours favorable
~ino for a plane. On every other
day there were winds varying ir
velocity from 13 to "a miles per hour
either directly against the ships course
or at varying angles on the beam
At higher attitudes, the wind direc.
tiors would differ, but an airplane
travelling westward could expect un-
favorable winds for almost the entire
flight
With Honolulu 2,400 miles away
q clipper with a cruising speed OF
$50 miles per hour would cover the
distance in Is hours-on paper. How
ever. if the plane bucked a 30-mile
headwind for the entire distance
which probably would be an extreme
case, it would make only 100 miles
an hour, although consuming fuel al
a 150-mile rate, and would require
20 hours to reach Honolulu-the
equivalent of flying 5000 miles.
Ships Must Meet Test.
Consequently, passengers won't be
riding the clipper planes, although
more than 100 already have filed ap-
pliCations at New York for places
on the first voyage, until the ships
have demonstrated they have not
only a 3,000-mile flying radius, but
4 surplus in their fuel tanks when
they land after that.
In testing what a plane is able to
do, the most obvious objectives to
those who merely sit on cushioned
seats and ride are safety precautions.
But before plane can be declared
safe for regular service, the delicate
instruments for the radio, for weather
observation and for measuring wind
directions every thousand feet to the
12,000-foot level must be adjusted and
in working order
\Copyright. 1885. by North American
Newspaper Alliance. Inc)