Over Eight Miles Up for New Record

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1058, 23 August 1930, Page 18

Over Eight Miles Up for New Record

Tiny Apache Plane Reaches Altitude of 43,166 ft. in Temperature 89 Degress Below Zero . . . Amazing Flight by Intrepid Youth Occupies Two Hours, Eight Minutes ... HREE hundred and twenty-eight feet higher into the sky. Would he ever make it? . . . His engine coughed and spluttered . . . the

supercharger shrieked and screamed at the thin air. The plane down-nosed into a long dive. The aviator struggled in his clumsy clothing to straighten it out and force it upward again. For twenty minutes this super-, human fight went on in the air eight miles above Anacosti . Naval Air Station, while an anxious crowd of naval officers milled around on the earth below straining at the blue vault with searching eyes. They could visualise in their minds, though they could not see with their naked eyes or powerful field-glasses, the tiny silver Wright Apache airplane being driven by its tense-jawed master, like a lean-limbed Pegasus, into the frozen leaches of space. And then a trail of drifting white, slipping off into the blue unknown —congealed vapour from the exhaust of the plane. In a few minutes, wavering down like a butterfly from an unseen world, came the plane. As it approached the landing field it circled wide to the north and then headed back into the light, steady south wind. Slim and Boyish Lieutenant Apollo Soucek, slim and boyish, ripped from his head a furlined helmet and gasped smilingly: "Two hours and eight minutes!” Thus came the end of one of the most notable altitude flights in aviation history. For while Lieutenant Soucek spoke disparagingly of his flight and insisted that he was not sure that bo had broken the world’s altitude .record for planes, his barographs, upon being calibrated a few days later, showed him to have reached the stupendous height of 43.16Gft, the highest ever attained by man in either airplane or balloon. Thus was won the altitude record for all planes—wrested, strangely enough, from Soucek himself by Willi Neuenhofen. of Germany, slightly more more than a year ago. On May 33, 1929, Neuenhofen. driving a Junkers H-34 monoplane, climbed 41.794 feet into the sky. This surpassed Soucek’s record of 39.140 ft made on May 8 of the same year. Now Soucek is again in the lead, this time by 1.372 ft. What this means will be realised when it is said that to surpass an existing record an aviator must top it by 100 metres, or 328 ft. In other words, Soucek's record will stand until Neuenhofen or some other pilot climbs to approximately 43,500 ft, or, specifically. 43,494 ft up from the earth. He must also land on the field from which he takes off and in control of his plane. How was Lieutenant Soucek dressed for this eerie flight—a flight which, before it came to an end, was to take him into a region where the thermometer on his wing strut registered S 9 degrees below zero Fahrenheit; a flight where the air is so rare that the plane hung motionless, though the propellers fanned, like some desperate creature’s wings, the illimitable void for a hold? His life depended, during the flight in the frozen wastes of the upper world, upon a thin stream of oxygen sucked through a slender tube from

three small oxygen tanks in a space to the rear of the cockpit. Once this tube became clogged With ice. but Lieutenant Soucek shook it very hard and tile ice rattled out on to the floor of the cockpit. Few Clothes In altitude flights of other days pilots have donned all the heavy clothing they could get on—heavy suits over heavy woollens, eiderdown and jackets of fur. But Soucek, before he climbed into the cockpit of his 36foot wingspread 425-horsepowered Wasp Apache, stripped to the skin and then next to his body placed only one garment-—a single-piece fur-lined suit with helmet and boots to match. Over his eyes, just before he gave the ship .the “gun,” he pulled a pair of electrically heated goggles, specially designed by himself and his -brother. Lieutenant Zeus Soucek, for altitude flying; adjusted his oxygen mouthpiece and shoved his hands into a pair of fur-lined gloves. Heated" goggles are imperative for high-altitude flying, as they prevent the accumulation of frost, which hides the instrument board and the ground below, bo-th of which must be kept in sight if -the flight is going to end successfully. For months before Lieutenant Soucek made his epochal flight he had his plane in a factory getting it ready for the great event. All set, Lieutenant Soucek flew his plane to Washington a short while before he made his new bid for fame and gave it a few trial spins. In these tests Lieutenant Soucek went as high as 40,000 feet. In his great test, Soucek left the ground at 2.18 p.m. He took off- like a lark and he didn’t stop when he gained altitude and “straighten away” —he just kept on going up. In 12 minutes he was lost to tile sharpest eye, straight overhead—vanished as completely as if he had left for another world. But what took place up in the sky unseen by a single earthbound eye? For nearly an hour Soucek climbed straight up. His altometer showed a height of 41,500 feet. Above "that he did not seem able -to go. But for twenty minutes he kept his engine wide open, giving it all the gas possible, while the supercharger shrieked and sang as it worked to transform the thin air into a density sufficient for the continued efficiency of the engine. An air pressure of 118 millimetres, a square inch was registered at the height of the flight, as compared with

760 millimetres a square inch at sea level. Neuenhofen reported a minimum of 126 millimetres and Captain Hawthorne C. Gray, Army Air Corps balloonist, who lost bis life in an altitude flight a few years ago, turned in 122. Gray's altitude at the time of his death was 42,470 feet, according to his barograph. “Through Inverted Telescope” Eight miles above the earth and one is in a new world. The winds whip by in excess of 100 miles an hour. No matter how clear the aspect of the day, from the pinnacle of his eight-mile perch the aviator sees nothing below except a little patch of his familiar home, and that little patch very indistinctly. He peers, as it were, through an inverted telescope and recognises Mother "Earth only by the tiny silver threads of rivers, little squares for cities and hairlines for the widest streets. He knows that if he cannot get down the law of gravity will bring him down, yet there are times when even this seems doubtful. Lieutenant Souoek does not hold a favourable opinion of the possibilities for commercial aviatiou at heights about 10,000 and 12,000 feet. As the winds of the upper air levels never flow any direction other than southwest to north-east, availability of them could not be had for air-trafiic assistance other than in this direction. Again, cold becomes a factor to reckon with as one mounts skyward. But there is prac.ical application of altitude flying to military combat. For a plane that will climb to a height of 40,000 feet will climb readily at any altitude. This is of great advantage in military combat. If an engine can be developed that will operate efficiently at 40,000 feet, it will have more military utility than one which will operate efficiently at 30,000 feet. “The Ceiling” Successful air combat means being able to overtop one’s enemy. The pilot on top has the advantage. His opponent is at his mercy. The 40,000-foot-efficient airplane eugluo commands the field. Again, it is of great value to military science to know beforehand what atmospheric and ether conditions prevail in the unearthly regions of an eight-mile “ceiling.” A pilot knows how to dress to lceeircomfortable in that region without having to resort to cumbersome clothing He knows the amount of oxygen necessary to carry to permit him vj make the “ceiling” without burdening his plane for the performance.