Evening star., 1939-05-21

command of the NC-l, which landed
short of the Azores and later sank
after the crew had been taken
aboard the Greek ship Ionia. is now
a captain at the Naval Air Station
at Norfolk. Va.
Reviewing the epochal flight Of
the NC-4, as we'll as those of Hawker
and Grieve and Alcock ard Brown,
Capt. Read said that these flights
were made 20 years ago lust to
show that such things could be
done"
They were demonStrat tions. rather
than tests ne declared
Asked to compare the NC's flight
with those made by the American
Clipper planes and the British I'm
perial AlrWays survey planes two
years ago preparatory to Inaugural
ton this year of regular service be-
tween the United States and the
British Isles, Read said:
Scientific Now.
To-day the great flights aren't so
spectacular. They are made as
cNitiIiAIlI ChpCi llllCIllS. dllu IIldJ
work isn't so dramatic"
Twenty years ago, when Read
completed the Atlantic fight. he
said he expected to wing his way
over the ocean again inside Of a
few years"
Il expect to take my wife and
baby with me-" he added.
But none of them has been across
by air since.
asked Capt. Towers few weeks
ago whether he had flown the At
lantic since 1919. by dirigible or
otherwise, or the Pacific in one Of
the big Navy patrol boats which the
Navy sends regularly in squadrons
from California to Hawaii
NO, I haven't" he said. but,
naturally I should like to do either
or both"
Another expert closely associated
with the NC flights was DR.. Jerome
c. HunSaker, who was at that time
chief constructor of the United
States Navy and had large part in
the designing of the NC boats with
the late Glenn Curtiss. Later Hun
saker designed the Navy's dirigible.
Shenandoah, and he is now head of
the Guggenheim Aeronautical Lab
oratory at Massachusetts, Institute
of Technology.
NCs' Origin.
He told how the NCs were orig
inally designed to be used overseas
for submarine patrol work against
the German U-boats then menacing
Allied shipping and troop conveys,
and how it was planned to fly them
across the Atlantic to save freight
space on ships and delays in dis
mantling and then reassembling the
flying boats.
In the fall of 1917 I was confident
that we could build a flying boat
that could fly the Atlantic by way
of the Azores when stripped Of its
military load" he said.
The idea was to fly large num-
Der of anti-submarine patrol boats
to the war zone and there put on
board the depth bombs. guns, etc.
The principal element of doubt was
the practical one of weather, be-
cause the operation required favor
able wind and water conditions for
the overloaded take-off."
Now the risk has gone from the
operation. This summer. not
stripped" boats" but luxury air.
liners capable of handling "a passen-
gers comfortably, with berths. din
ing salons, lounges and other ac-
coutrements of modern travel will
wing their way across the ocean
Manned by crews of nine, these
big clippers will be capable of sus-
tanned flight for four times the
longest distance made by any of the
NC boats in single hop. Mechanics
will be able to adjust engines in
flight from within the ship itself.
instead of walking out on the wing
and using window-washers' safety
straps. as the NC mechanics had
to do.