FLIGHT TO NORTH POLE

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 441, 24 May 1937, Page 5

FLIGHT TO NORTH POLE

SOVIET SCIENTISTS AIRMEN LAND SAFELY Hammer And Sickle Flag Implanted Press Association —Copyright. (Received' 10.5 am.) Moscow, May 23. As the- audience, standing up, reclaimed ,the premiere of <the play, “The Dream,” dramatising the hero’s plans for an Arctic flight and its ultimate realisation, the author, Michael Vodopianov, was himself approaching the North Pole, piloting the scientists who on Saturday landed there. The expedition is headed by Professor Otto Schmidt, and the machine landed on an iceflow 12 miles from the Pole, west of the Rudolf Island meridan. The expedition intends to remain there for a year for scientific research while the flow drifts. The object is to study the possibility of establishing a permanent Polar landing base for the projected Moscow-San Francisco air route.

The four scientists who will remain at the Pole will be provisioned for a year and a-half by plane. They will live in a collapsible insulated hut. They hope to establish a permanent meteorological station. Caviare, sausages, powdered eggs, milk and chicken, in addition to brandy and tea, will sustain the scientists. They will have a solitary dog to warn them of the approach of bears. Professor Schmidt’s first report says that the weather is comparatively ■warm and sunny, with a slight wind. Everyone is feeling splendid, and all members of the expedition slept well after 24 hours’ continuous work erecting five <tents> and installing the scientific instruments. The iceflow makes an admirable aerodrome. He has implanted at the. Pole a flag bearing the hammer and sickle and Josef Stalin’s photograph.*