Evening star., 1946-10-07
z 1.-THE EVENING STAR, Washington, D. C.
Az,
7ronspoIor Air Route Possible,
Dreomboot Radio Officer Says
Low-Frequeney Use
Suggested to Prevent
sunspot BlqelkIso'u.ts
BY tho Associates Press


BY the Asseeis,sd Pssssr
CAIRO, Oct. THE com.
munications officer Of the B-2s
Pacusan Dreamboat, which flew
nonstop 10,925 miles over tn.
Arctic Circle from Hawaii tc
Cairo, said today that CONNER.
cial air service over the top oi
the world was practicable from
a communications standpoint.
1t. Col. F. j. Shannon, called back
to Army service especially for the
test flight from his job as engineer
for Radio Station WCAU in Phila.
delphia, said high radio frequencies
were blacked out repeatedly by sun.
spot fiareups but declared:
If commercial airways decide tt
use this region as an air route,
believe they could have successful
communications with aftfew well
placed low frequency radio sta
tionS." I'll
Col. Shannon said in an interview
that the shortest distance between
many population centers was across
the northern wastes.
The commander of the Dreamboat
maintained. meanwhile. that the
276-mile-an-hour trip had proved
the ability of the B-29 to defend
the United States over any part of
the world"
The Dreamboat landed at Payne
Field in the desert near here at 9:57
am. Greenwich mean time (2:57
am. EST yesterday-39 hours So
minutes after the takeoff on the
flight to test equipment in polar
weather.
Col. C. S. (BilD Irvine of st. Paul,
Nebr., pilot of the Super Fortress
and commander of its nine-man
crew, said the flight had proved the
defense value of the Super Fortress.
The Dreamboat had been stripped
even of de-icing equipment to carry
a heavier fuel load and had ex-
hausted all except 400 gallons of its
l3,00o- gallon supply by the end of
the trip.
B-36 Range Is Cited.
But Col. Irvine told reporters the
United States Armys new B-36
bomber could have made the same
fight with a bomb load. "The B-36
was designed for a range of 10000
miles with a load" he explained,
while the B-29 has a range with
load of 1000 miles"
Col. Irvine said the fight had
shown the magnetic North Pole to
be about 200 miles closer to the
geographical North Pole than SCI
entists had believed. When the
plane passed north of the presumed
magnetic pole, its magnetic COM
passes, instead of pointing south
pointed toward the geographical
pole.
Shortly before the Qreamboat was
sighted over Cairo. the commander
radioed grimly, Il declare emer-
gency." He expressed fear the low
fuel supply would unbalance the
ship and landing would be dam
gerouS.
But the plane touched down safe
ly and the crewmen, tired from lack
of sleep, stepped out to welcome
from the Royal Aero Club of Egypt.
They talked with newsmen and
then headed for Shepherds Hotel
and a bath.
On the trip, the Dreamboat
passed over three oceans-Pacific,
Arctic and Atlantic-and three con-
tinents-North America, Europe and
Africa-and bisected the Arctic Cir
Gle, once reporting from Prince of
Wales Island 400 to 500 miles within
the circle.
The plane was the most heavily
loaded Super Fortress ever to take
off when it lifted "a tons, more than
half that in gasoline, into the air at
Honolulu.
Escaped Icing Conditions.
To escape icing conditions, it flew
most of the way above the clouds
and higher than its most efficient
altitude of 10000 feet, once going to
$4,000 feet between Baffin Land and
Iceland. With better conditions,
Col. Irvine said, it could have gone
about 1000 miles farther to Khar-
toum.
Over Northern Canada, from
Alaska to Greenland, the magnetic
compass needle spun madly and
Maj. N. p. Hayes of Seneca, Mo-,
navigator, fell back on a six-pound
electrical gyro for guidance. Over
England the weather was bad and
over the Mediterranean there was
4 thunderstorm.
The Dreamboat beat its own pre-
dicted flight time of IL hours but |
did not win back the nonstop record
taken from it recently by the Navy's
patrol bomber, the Truculent Turtle,
which few 1880 miles from Perth,
Australia, to Columbus, Ohio.
The crewmen were Col. Beverly
Warren of Omaha, a pilot; Maj. j.
T. Brothers of Knoxville, Tenn, a |
navigator; Maj. j. r. Dale Of Wise,
Va, flight engineer; r. B. Snod-
grass of Seattle, Wash, Boeing
engineer; Col. Shannon; Sergt. E. G.
Vase of Huntsville, Mo-, radio oper-
ator: Maj. j. r. Kerr of Arcadia,
Calf, aircraft engineer. and Sergt.
G. S. Fish of Appleton, Wis, en-
gineer.
"Pacusan" spells out the initials
of the Pacafic Air Command. United
States Army, plus M for euphony.
Spanish Republican AGENT