Evening star., 1939-10-18
TeIevision Spans 200
Miles 10 Audience
In Lofty Plane
New York Scene
Received n 200 Feet
Above D. 6. in Test
BY JOSEPH S. EDGERToN.

BY JOSEPH S. EDGERTON.
Pursuing into the substratosphere
ultra high-frequency radio waves
which insist on going of into space
rather than bend to conform with
the earth's surface as do other radio
waves, group of Washington OBJ
servers flying over the National
Capital at an altitude of 81 200 feet
yesterday afternoon witnessed the
first television broadcast ever re-
ceived over distance of more than
80 miles.
Circling above clouds which shut
OF all view Of the ground 4 miles
below, in temperature % degrees
below freezing, the local observers
were able to see and hear the crew
Of United Airlines mainliner being
interviewed on ramp of the newly
dedicated $4,000, 900 New York air.
port more than 200 miles away.
Arranged jointly by the Radio
Corp. of America and United Air
Lines, yesterdays fight over Wash
ington represented the first attempt
to extend the range of the intract-
able radio waves upon which tele-
vision must depend under alloca-
tions Of the Federal Communica-
tions Commission.
Straight-Line Waves.
Because television waves obey ex-
actly the same rules as light waves,
travelling only in straight lines sub
ject to being blocked off by noun
tains, the curvature of the earth's
surface or even intervening build
ings, they have up to now been lin
ited to range of less than so miles,
even when broadcast from an an
tenna high above the highest New
York skyscrapers.
To prove that the range Of the
television wave-length Is far greater
than the 50-mile limits within which
receiving OF the New York broad
casts so far has been confined, r.
c. A. engineers arranged yester-
days novel scientific demonstration
over Washington.
A television receiver was mounted
In the forward end of the passenger
compartment of a United Airlines
DC-3 21-passenger mainliner. The
observers, among them Edward H.
Warner and Oswald Ryan Of the
Civil Aeronautics Authority, officials
Of the F. G. G. and Army and Navy
and newspapermen, boarded the
big plane at Washington Airport,
taking off at 1852 am. yesterday.
Oxygen Masks Available.
In a steady climb, the big ship Is
minutes later had reached an alti-
tude of 1000 feet above Baltimore
and passengers were advised to be-
gin taking oxygen through nose
masks and tubes especially installed
for the flight. Three miles below,
an Atlantic Clipper of Pan Ameri-
can Airways could be seen riding at
her moorings off the Baltimore
ocean base.
Turning back toward Washington,
the big plane by 1926 pm. had at
tanned an altitude of $4,000 feet, with
a temperature Of 20 degrees out
side. Estimating that the ship soon
would begin to climb within range
Of the television waves from the
skyscraper antenna in New York,
r. c. A. engineers turned on the re-
ceiving set, both television and
radiophone. Then, as the plane
climbed above the skyline separat-
ing us from the tips Of the New York
skyline, the television screen began
to glow and there appeared q view Of
the giant new airport at Rickers
Island with an airplane and its crew
In the foreground.
AS we continued to climb into the
thinning air, curtains were drawn
over the frost encrusted windows of
our plane to cut out the dazzling
rays of the ever-intensifying sun
light and, although we no longer
could see the ground below us, we
could see and hear without difdculty
an interview of the airline crew in
New York by television engineer.
Static Distorts Picture.
BY 12:42 pm, when we had
reached our maximum altitude of
21,200 feet Can altitude to which it
is said less than 100 laymen have
gone), static had begun to distort
both television and radio reception.
This static, engineers aboard be-
lieved, was caused by electrical inter-
ference within the airplane which,
for some strange reason, increased
with altitude. AS we began to de-
scend, reception improved until, as
we passed below the invisible sky
line, at about $500 feet, television
reception was cut of abruptly,
though the curving radio waves con-
tinued to come through clearly.
AS an experiment, the flight con-
hrmed theories which engineers have
held concerning the action of waves
in the new television band, it was
stated, and may lead to further
studies which will advance the time
when television may become as COM
monplace as the present radio, with
effects on human progress now diff
fic,11t IN foreSee