CREATING LOS ANGELES-MOSCOW AIR ROUTE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 77, 17 April 1937, Page 15

CREATING LOS ANGELES-MOSCOW AIR ROUTE

Spectacular Progress Which Russia s Pilots and Builders are Achieving in the Conquest of the Air. Giant Machines That Defy Arctic Storms andFog Parachute- Jumping the National Sport.

^PHE stand of the TJSSR at the last Paris Aeronautical Show has again afforded a striking proof of the speetaeular progress which her pilots and builders are achieving in the conquest of the air, wrltea Andre Pierre. One went away from this exhibit with the conviction that Russia has almost emancipated herself from Europ6an and Ameriean teehnique and is, with her own means and materials, . building first-rate planes to.day, which would stand eomparison with the latest and hest Ameriean, Jtnlian and Erenoh models. One of the greatest atfractions of the exhibit .was the giant ANT-25, the monoplane with which the three celebrated pilots, Tehkalav, Baidukow and Bieliakov, had defled arctie. storms and fog last summer, After a non-stop flight of 5,825 miles, out of which 3,100 miles were flown o.ver the iqy desert of the Arctic Oqean, they landed on a sandy and deserted island on the extreme oastern border of the Asiatie oouv tinent. The plane, built by engineef Toupolev, Russia 's leading constrnctor and - director of the Tzagui Institute, was equip- ; ped with an M.34-R motor, of the same type ag the one used by the aoe Gromov fwo years aga for his 7,700 mile flight oyer a circumscribed route. It is a 950 H.P. motor, adapted at the Erunze plant in Moscow to the special requirements of arctic fiying. As such, it presents several special features among which is its unusually low consumption of fuel. Another of the exbibits, the ANT-35, was flown to Paris by Gromov, after his, rqmarkable performance of last September, when he flew from Moscow to Leningrad and baek, almost 800 miles, in Shr. 38min. at an aver- . age speed of 217 miles an hour, with aeven passengers on board. This monoplane, also eonstrueted at the Tzagui — which is the abbreviation for Aero-Hydrodynamic Institute — is built throughout of metal and xs " equipped with double.gear and a complete radio installation. Its spaeious and well- - heated oabin provjdes oomfortable accommodation for ten passengers. It is in a word a veritable "express of the air" in which the Russians place high hopes as ^ a rapid mean& of transportatidn, fqr its stability in the air is pe'rfect and its moni-. pnlation easy, even a.t ye?y groat altitudes. Maps and graphs enabled the visitor tP appreciate tho impQvtauoa and difficulties of the long diatance flighta vndort&ken last fall by Levane.ysky and Molokhoy. They degerye special. attention, even though they did not involve spectacular gpeeds or non- • stop hops. But these flights were real voyages" pf exploration over virgin territory, and the material colleeted by the fliers is a preciosus contribution towards the conquest of the Arctic, upon which the Soyiet Tlnion haa embarked with grim determination fo sqceeed. Levaneysky and his pilot Levchenko pyoyed the possibility of establishing a legular noiihern. air-rqute between the Soviet Uniqn and the IJnited States. They left Los Angeles on an 4meriean plane ( built under tlxeir direction and followed the west coast of the Gontinent, through San ! Praneisco, Seattle and Juneau, and crossed Alaska, stopping at Fairbank" and No.me. From there "they hqpped acr-oss the Bering Strait, landing at Cape Wellen, Their , Siberian itinerary fqn along thp -Arctie coast ta the mouth of the Jiiqna, them up- . stream along that. mighty riypj tP. Ya-kutsk, after which they headed westward for Moscow. They had flown in all 11,8(16 m.ilCsJ under most diffieult meteorologxcal • and general conditions. The f get that their plane was equipped with the latest dqyiees for the measurement of tempexature, atmps*^ pheric pressure and so fprtH,. enabled them'.to- make exhaustiye study ef eonditipns, and also to gather valuuble > inf prmafign re- ' garding possible landing plqeps, whpra it ie now plfumed to est@biish" aifrp.eirtu. Thpy . *

gave proof of great daring and resourceful-. ness when compelled to alight on the stormy Paeifle near Goose Island and when flying over the Altai mountains in a snow-storm. This flight would not have beeu possible without the enormous preparatory wOrk performed in the past ten years in the Arctie regions, which are now covpred with a net of radio statiobs and direction flnders. At no moment of this epic flight did ihe two men feel isolated, for their every message was immediately picked up and answered by • a ohorus of stations. A few days after Levanevsky's landing in Moscow on September 13, Molokhov, the eraok flyer who saved 39 shipwrecked of the Ghelyuskin two years ago, alighted- on the Moskva River ih his giant twin-motor hydroplaue S-B3.R. N.2, with seven collaborators on .bdard- Without meeting with the slightest acoident, he had flown 15,535 miles along the Arctic Ocean and Bering and Okhotsk Seas, starting from Krasnoyarsk on July 22. A glance at the maps shows the immensity of this itinerary, His meohanie, Pobiejimov, considered Russia 's best- meohanie for arctic flying, was enthusiastic ih his praise pf the motor, f With such an engine," he declared, "we could have covered twioe that distance." These are some of the more spectacular

achieveuients of th@ young Russian ayiatiou Which is, howpver, doing well also in qther flelds, lifep that of high altitude flying, The best Russian flfpr of this kind, Kokkinaki, is conviuced that the futUre of aviati@n in' general lie* in the. stratosphere, and gipce the SoYiet TXnion became a member- of the F.4.1. (Inte|national Aeronautical Federation) he has established a few- altitude records with iQftdSv Las.t Septemhfsr, carry-: ing a 2-ton lond). he reuehed an altitpde of 37,6Q^ feet. The whble fligbt lasted one hoiif and eight minqtes, Howeyer, his reeefd has since been beate.n by anQthef Rus-. s{an pilot, Alexeyev, while quite Tecently ! the. wqrld record in thiB PlSHS) hithqrto held - ' ' ' • ■

by the Italian Antonini, a Oaproni pilot, was beateru by Youmachev. All these' records were officially registered by the F.A.I. More recently the Soviet pilots have turned their attention to gliding, and made a few long-distance flights which have plaqed them in the class of world recordmen, Absolutely unparalleled in the history of aviation is Russia 's effort in the field of parachute jumping, the nation sport which enjoys tremendous popularity not only among the professions but among all classes of the population, thanks to the formidable propaganda of the Qssoviakhim and kindred organisations. The Red Army eounts among its effectives several squadrons of trained jumpers, whose performance at the last Russian military manoeuvres arpused the admiration of all the foreign military missions, A regular war in the air was staged near Minsk and . a special feature was the landing of a squadron of parachute jumpers and of numerous units of artillery on enemy territory, ri'ght behind the enemy lines. The whole complicated manoeuvre, from the moment of the giving of the order to the landing, was ■ executed with fantastic rapidity. The sky waa literally darkened with parachutes. Naturally the Russian constructors devote much attention to the improvement of the parachute devioes, especially with a view to enabling the jumpera to choose the landing spot. The young engineer Pavlov, demonstrated the "paraplane" deviged by him, which is a -parachute with folding wings supported by a chassis of duraluminum. He rose in a plane, attaining an altitude of 10,500 feet, jumped off, and, after eight seconds of a precipitous deseent, unfolded his wings,- which gave him the appearance of a giant insect, He executed a number of complicated loops and other manoeuvres with them during 138 seconds. Having descended to 2,79Q feet, he gqt. rid of his wings, which opened into a paraphute and landpd by themselves, while he manoeuvred his own parachute and landed exactly at the spot he hjid chosen. The reason why Russia makea such a tremendous effort in the development of her aviation is the immensity of the territory „ and the necessity of providing Tapid means of. communication without further delay.Russia has very few railways and -praeti' cally no highways. For years to come, therefore, aviation is her. only hope, not to mention the requirements of her defence in case of war^ A new airport is being built at Toushino near Moscow, with a landing area of a diameter of 1.24 miles and a large hotel. The faoades of the buildings will overlook the new Moskva- Yolga Canal. It will be the starting-point' and terminus of Russia 's three most important airways: MoscowYladiyostock, Mqscow-Tiflis and Moscow4'"1-" Tqshkent, All facilxtieg will be provided for air-racds- -and exhibitions. They- are erecting stands for ihe publie which will ac,eommo(|ate 200,606 people. Moscow 's old airport is on the Leningrad highway and will remain in operation. 'The Kossarev Flying Olub, which is the aeronautical centre of Russian youth, is being enlarged and stands for 700,000 spectators are being erqete^' @n its flying-fleld. Ntunefous new hapgars yfill b.e built in all larger centres, in view, of the fact that the 1937 schedule calls for the enlargement of the air-fl'eets of all hinds, This brief survey of sq colossal an effort shows that both in the field of military as In that of eommercial aviation .Russia 's progress has been an exceedingly rapid one. Her technical equipment is fully up to the requirements and can hold its Own hgaipst foreign competition. But the most remarkable thing about Russian ayiation i?. undoubtedly the quality of its humau material and the skill and courage pf , its pilots.