Evening star., 1941-05-12
Only One Bomber LosI
On Ferry Flights 10
England, Pilot Says
George R. Hutchinson
Visits His Flying
Family at Baltimore
By the Associated Press.

BY the Associated PreSS.
BALTIMORE, May 12.-Only one
American bombing plane has been
lost in ferry flights" to England,
George R. Hutchinson, ferry pilot
who has flown four ships across
the Atlantic, said during a visit
with his family here.
Mr.. Hutchinson said the one
bomber Just disappeared" and in
dicated the ferry pilots are being
brought back to this side of the
Atlantic by airplane instead OF ship
board.
He would not disclose how he
made the return trip, but mentioned
he had been in England so recently
that he could not have returned by
this time on ship.
Head of Flying Family"
Mr.. Hutchinson, head of flying
family"-his wife and two daugh-
ters have flown thousands of miles
with him-said sit would be just an
accident if we met their (German)
fighters" on the ferry flights.
They don't know when we are
coming in, and a pursuit ship can't
carry enough gasoline to hover
around waiting for us. Anyway,
some of these planes We are bring
ing over could outrun them, be-
lieve"
He added that the last plane he
delivered was four -motored Liber-
ator bomber, built by the Consoli-
dated factories on the West Coast.
MI. Hutchinson left last night for
an airplane factory in the West.
AS a souvenir, he brought home
a chunk of bomb which he said
struck the tail of an airplane he took
to England. German flyers bombed
the English field soon after he had
arrived Mr.. Hutchinson said, and
the new airplane was the only one
damaged in the raid.
Cutting Nose Off Bomb.
After that, Mr.. Hutchinson con-
tinued, he saw a man working in a
pit with hammer and chiSel.. The
man told him that Jerry dropped
a dud, and I'm cutting the detonator
out. We can't just unscrew them
any more. He's fixed them so they
go off when we do that, so we have
to chop off the whole nose of the
bomb
After he told me that, each ham
mer blow sounded like the crack Of
doom. and I started to get out of
the neighborhood, but he stopped
me.
"'I say, he said, aren't you one
on the chaps who fly those airplanes
across the ocean?" I told him was.
"'Blimey,' the man answered,
you blokes take some awful
chances Then he kept on ham,
mering on his bomb, shaking his
head"
Planes Unarmed on Delivery.
Mr.. Hutchinson said the naviga-
ton system is so good, and the
flight planes so well prepared that
airplanes crossing the Atlantic land
at the designated airdrome within
the hour scheduled for their ar
rival The planes are unarmed
during their delivery flights because
of extra fuel loads for the ocean
crossing. ..>-
The American pilot said there
has been a great deal of bomb dam
age to London, but expressed the
belief the city can take a lot more"
Casualties aren't as heavy as they
were, and people can get along and
get things done without their build
ings," he explained.
Mr.. Hutchinson is hoping, he
says, that he will not be given a
cargo in his next fight like the
one he carried on his last trip.
"It was bullfrogs," he said. 1.-TWO
hundred of them in little boxes
They are used for some sort of gas
tests. But I don't care about hav-
ing them for passengers. They
croaked all the way across, and
IL kind of got on nv nerves"