Evening star., 1937-06-22
REGULAR POLAR
FLIGHTS ARE SEEN
Soviet Flyers Predict the
Service in Zone or Two,
Maybe Three" Years,
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO, June H.
Transpolar flights will be regular oc.
currences in "one or two years-mavbe
three" says the man who piloted
Soviet Russia's plane on the $780,
mile jaunt from Moscow to Vancouver,
Wash, last week end.
"A return flight would be easier be-
cause we would have tail winds" said
Pilot Valerie Chekalof1.
With contemporary technique and
science, we think there will be reeu-
lar flights over the North Pole in one
or two years-maybe three"
Chekaloff and his two companions,
welcomed by 5000 persons who
thronged Oakland Airport last eve
ming, said they next wanted TO try a
MoscoW-NeW York flight via the polar
regions.
Today they looked forward to view-
ing the country in which they landed
Sunday after an epic, 63-hour fight
from the Soviet capital.
Want to See U. S. Industries.
They expressed particular desire for
an introduction to American industrial
technique and TO visit in San Fran.
cisco, Chicago and New York.
The big, single-motored monopIane
in which Chekaloff, Co-Pilot Georgi
Baibukof and Navigator Alexander
Bellakoff spanned the Arctic. will be
dlsmantled at Vancouver and shipped
TO Russia.
Yesterday Chekalof told of the
transpolar adventure. as he and his
companions were flown in a chartered
alrliner from Portland. Greg, to Oak.
land.
Russian Ambassador Alexander
Iroyanovsky acted as Interpreter.
Chekalof, who few the same plane
5000 miles across Siberia last year as
a training gesture, said he consid-
cred the transpolar fight the most
interesting, most difficult and most
useful OF any Of our hops"
Scientists Wrong.
First" he related I'VE foresau al
most all the things We might encounter
at the Pole, and were prepared for
them
Scientists told us We would en-
counter no clouds over the top of the
earth at 5000 meters, but we went as
high as 5000 meters about 4 niles
over the geographical Pole and saw
many clouds
Many miles of ice fields, crevices
and glaciers greeted our eyes. There
was no open water.
Fitted with heavy. warm clothes.
We never suffered from the % degrees
below zero temperature. Our drinking
water froze and we had to suck on ice.
Lack Of oxygen in the higher elti-
tudes was our chief hardship. We had
TO bear the condition. however, because
we were afraid to fly lower.
The sphere of the magnetic pole
caused certain deviations in our in
struments. We foresaw this and fig
ured our calculations accordingly.
I'VE used the sun compass virtually
all the way and it worked very well"
The sun compass is clockwork in
strument that automatically corrects
itself with changes in the suns an
giles and records the position Of this
guiding light on frosted plate. 1t
was developed by Admiral Richard E.
Byrd for his Antarctic flights.
Frank Stector and Anita Whitney,
ranking officers of the Communist
party in California. were among the
welcoming throng at Oakland Airport.
All Are Married.
| One banner proclaimed:
The California State Communist
! party welcomes the heroic Soviet fly-
ers in their outstanding achievement
of socialism"
The men are all married. They
| live as they fy-to9ether. The same
| Moscow building is the residence for
| Chekaloff, his wife and two children:
| Baibukof, his wife and daughter, and
Beliakof and his wife.
Chekalof said he piloted the plane
the entire $500 miles in So hours
from a solitary cockpit The navisa-
tor and the co-pilot sat together.