Smyrna times., 1939-01-05
TRICKS
TIME IN FLIGHT
Howard Hughes in Trip
Around the World in
Four Days
SEES FIVE SUNRISES

WASHINGTON, d. C.-''The fast
est circuit of the earth ever made
by man and machinery-the recent
flight by Howard Hughes and his
companions around the world in a
few hours less than four days-dem-
onstrates the tricks that high speed
can play with mans accepted sys-
tenn Of time points out a bulletin
from the National Geographic soci-
ETY.. In their four days Of flight
Hughes and his companions saw the
sun rise five times while all the
other inhabitants Of the earth. out
side the Arctic and Antarctic cir
cles. could see it rise only four
times. During the summer, with
in the Arctic circle, the sun is al
ways in sight; within the Antarctic
circle, in summer, it is never in
sight)
Five Sunrises in Four Days.
Hughes and his fellow flyers saw
five sunrises in four days because
their plane, flying the same direc-
tion that the earth was turning on
its axis, actually outdistanced the
earth one complete lap. Their ex-
perience can be compared to that
of men running forward on speed
ing train: they move over the
ground more rapidly than the train
does. With the speed Of the earth
and its atmosphere, and the addi-
tional speed contributed by the
powerful motors of the airplane.
Hughes and his companions took
five whirls through space around
the earth's axis while the rest of
the earth's inhabitants made only
four trips.
Hughes five meetings with the
rising sun were over the Atlantic
ocean on Monday, between Paris
and Moscow on Tuesday, between
Omsk and Yakutsk on Wednesday,
between Yakutsk and Fairbanks on
Thursday, and between Fairbanks
and Minneapolis on second Thurs
day. Thursday was repeated be-
cause the flyers crossed the Inter
national Date Line from west to
east.
Because Hughes plane was add
ing its speed to that of the whir1-
ing earth, the five sun days
through which the plane few had
an average of only about 10 hours
each.
Keeps Calendar Straight.
This fastest of voyages around
the earth emphasizes the need which
civilization has for the International
Date Line more strikingly than does
a trip by ship or even crossing
of the Line by air in less than a
world-girdling journey. If Hughes
had followed the seemingly logical
plan of checking off an additional
day each time the sun rose, he
would have arrived back in New
York on a day which he would have
called Friday while to everyone
else it would have been Thursday
The setting up of the International
Date Line prevents such confusion,
whether a traveller circles the earth
by airp1ane in a few days or by
ship and rail in a month or so.
In either case the traveller. in or
der to keep his calendar straight,
must repeat a day if he journeys
from west to east, and must skip a
day if he moves from east to west.
THE International Date Line, set
up approximately along the 180th
meridian of longitude, in the mid
die of the Pacific ocean, is the most
convenient place to make the nec-
essary adjustment. Just as in cross
ing an hour line in the United
States, traveller by train, automo-
bile, or airplane, must turn his watch
forward or backward one hour. so
in crossing this day line traveller
by ship or plane must turn his time
piece forward or backward 24hours.
''Aviators avoid most of the COM
plexities that result from meving
rapidly across time zones, by US
ing for their calculations not the
local time at given p0ints bIIt in