Evening star., 1937-03-07

in these troubled times. Incidentally,
typhoid injections and smallpox in
oculations are among the personal
requisites Of long-range flying.
Takes Walking Boots.
Speaking Of personal matters.
what about your own equipment?
And your food?"
'If you mean clothes, one of my
own small air-tight suitcases will
carry all I'll take" Miss Earhart re-
piled. "Once I crossed the Atlantic
with only q toothbrush. This time
therel be a few luxuries like spare
slacks and clean linen"
The woman pilots usual flying toys
comprise twill slacks. sport shirt and
scarf, plus leather windbreaker.
their color almost always some tone
of brown. She will carry a light
overall flying suit-never q hat. In
the plane she'll wear light. low shoes.
And this time she's taking along q
pair of heavy. high walking boots.
'just in case" IS she puts it.
Other emergency items include q
light land compass, waterproof match
box, knife, small ak and canteen.
In the fuselage will be q two-man
rubber lifeboat, instantly inf1atable
from capsules Of carbon dioxide.
Likewise a Very pistol for firing dis
tress signals, fares that ignite on the
surface of the water, and. as she says,
"a very orange" orange kite.
"If We sit down somewhere in the
Pacific and stay afioat. I'd like to be
noticed" says Miss EArhart.
Tomato Juice . Standby.
As another safety precaution-or
at least an aid in case Of forced land
ing at sea or in jungle or desert
the top Of the planes wings are
having stripes Of black, orange and
red painted on them TO increase visi-
bility for possible searching aircraft.
The blue-gray Of the Electra's un-
painted metal Is difiicult to see against
neutral backgrounds.
Miss Earhart will carry her usual
food supplies. Tomato Juice is her
favorite standby. Her technique is
to punch a hole in a can with an
abbreviated ice-pick gadget. insert q
straw and. as she says, 'let nature
take its course"
There will be thermos bottles Of
hot cocoa and q reserve emergency
stay matted milk tablets. Raisins
and chocolate complete the larder.
Two desert water bags will carry
water. plus canteen.
A unique item in the pilots equip
ment is battery OF sun glasses
that have been made up especially
for her by Bausch & Lomb. Miss
Earhart reckons fatigue as q pilot
greatest problem on any long flight,
and especially one sustained for many
days A vital aspect Of physical and
mental fatigue, she has found, is eye
strain.
Glasses for Eye Strain.
Investigation shows that the bright
unfiltered skylight through which
| the aviator often flies is q source OF
not only dazzling white light. but also
| harmful ultraviolet and infra-red
light. For this reason sun glasses OF
| goggles used by aviators must have
such absorbtive qualities that they will
not only filter out harmful ultra
violet and infra-red light, but also
absorb a sufficient percentage Of the
white light so that the remainder
which reaches the eye will not be great
enough to cause fatigue.
Miss Earhart now has nine differen
pairs of special absorptive lenses and Z
lightmeter. The lenses are made from
glasses of different chemical compost
tions and having different densitie
and light-absorption qualities. Tn
lightmeter will at any time give I
measurement Of the sky illumination
in foot-candle units.
With these absorptive lenses ant
equipment it will be possible to CO
ordinate experimentally the densit.
and type Of glass to be worn with tn,
greatest comfort under the existinl
light intensity as indicated by tn
lightmeter.
The frames in which Miss Earhart'
special absorptive lenses are mountet
are of a new lightweight zylonite. Tn
results of the investigation may be o
widespread use in the selection of alb
sorptive lenses to be worn for every
day sport use as we'll as in aviation.
Other items? There are plenty o
them.
Final Testing Under Way.
As, for instance, specially made GOV
ers of Grenfell cloth for propeller
and engines; where there are no hang
ars dust and weather protection 70
vital mechanical parts is important
Also, ropes to tie the ship down. an,
stakes to tie it to. A parachute al
ready waits at Port Darwin-it woul
be wasted weight over the Pacific
Preparation Of the extra-long runwa
at Oakland. and last-minute wor
about the emergency landing field jus
created at Howland Island
With most of this accomplished S
far as things can be arranged In ad
vance, these last days will be devote
to shakedown flights and final testing
also to co-ordinating all arral- cement
at Flight Headquarters at Oaklan
Airport. There w. T. Miller Of tn
Department of Commerce. is workin
| H. EAxy