Famous Flyers Part 10

"Well, Lindy palled around with his old buddies at St. Louis, and carried mail over his old route to Chicago. He broke up his flights with going to New York to get a medal from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation for international peace and understanding, and then he went to Was.h.i.+ngton to get the Congressional Medal of Honor. And he had to get a new plane, too, from the Mahoney people who made the Spirit of St. Louis. I guess Lindy hated to part from the old bus. It was still in great condition, even though he'd flown 40,000 miles in it. But they wanted to put it in the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution, and he had to get another.

"It was just about this time, in April of 1928, that Lindbergh had to put his flying to a stiff test. He was in St. Louis when he learned that Floyd Bennett was very sick with pneumonia up in Quebec. Bennett was a great fellow, one of the most popular aviators of his time. He'd flown with Byrd to the North Pole, you remember. And in April, although he was sick, and knew he shouldn't have gone, he flew up to help Captain Koebl and Major Fitzmaurice and Baron von Huenefeld, who'd flown across the Atlantic, and were forced down off the coast of Labrador. Well, he landed with pneumonia in a Quebec hospital, and they needed some serum in a hurry to save his life. Lindy offered to fly with it, and took off right away for New York. It was 500 miles from New York to Quebec, mostly through fog and snow, and blizzards, but Lindy made it in three hours and thirty-five minutes. The serum didn't save Floyd Bennett, though. That plucky scout died the day after Lindbergh got there. He'd put up a great fight, but it was no use. The whole country felt gloomy over his death, and Lindy especially so, although he'd done his best to save his pal's life.

"In June of that year, that is, in 1928, Lindy,-maybe I should call him Charles Augustus Lindbergh, was appointed the chairman of the technical committee of the Transcontinental Air Transport, the company sending planes cross-country. This gave him the chance to be right in on the ground-or rather right in the air-of aviation progress. It wasn't just an office job, either, because Lindy flew almost as much after his appointment as before.

"In 1929 he kept right on flying. That's not really news. If Lindy stopped flying, that would be news. But in February of '29 he flew the first mail from Miami to Colon, in the Panama Ca.n.a.l Zone. This was the inauguration of the Pan-American Airways.

"In February the Morrows announced the engagement of Anne Morrow to Charles Augustus Lindbergh. From then on the reporters and photographers hung around in order to be in at the wedding. But Lindy and Anne fooled them. They were married in April, and n.o.body knew anything about it.

They just got quietly married, and left on their honeymoon in a yacht.

"From then on, whenever Lindy went on a trip, Anne Lindbergh went with him. She's a great flyer, and helps Lindy fly on long stretches. She pilots while he rests.

"The first long trip they took was in '29. That was the one through Central America to Belize, in British Honduras. That covered 7,000 miles. But they didn't stop long at Belize. They'd gone there for a reason. They headed their plane over the Yucatan peninsula, looking for Mayan ruins. You know, the Mayan Indians had a wonderful civilization all built up long before the white men came to Yucatan. They had a huge empire, and big cities with buildings as large as ours. Scientists are always digging around down there to uncover the ruins, so that they can find out about the Indians, and how they lived, and all that. But it's hard to find the places where the Maya Indians had their cities. The jungle has grown up so thickly all about them that it takes days and months to get to them. And those that aren't on rivers are almost impossible to get to.

"So Lindy proved once more that the airplane was a help to science, and flew over the old Mayan hang-outs, looking for ruins. He skimmed his plane over the tops of the jungles, so low that it seemed he might almost reach out his hand and grab a branch of one of those giant trees that grow down there, and he flew slowly, too, so that the scientists that were with him could take pictures.

"They found what they were after, three cities that hadn't ever been discovered before. And it took only four days, where it might have taken a party on foot months to do the same thing. Anne Lindbergh helped pilot the plane, and take pictures, too.

"There weren't any more exciting flights that year, but early the next year, that is, in 1930, Lindy ordered a new plane. It was a Lockheed-Sirius, a monoplane with a Wasp motor. It had a flattish-looking nose, but it was graceful just the same. It had something new that Lindy had designed himself. That was two covers that could be slid over the c.o.c.kpits, so that the pilots would be protected in bad weather.

"Lindy and Anne had a use for the plane and the c.o.c.kpit covers very soon. They flew across the country one day and broke the cross-country speed record that existed then.

"Hardly anybody knew what they were up to, and there were just a few people at the Glendale airport, where they started from. It was a terrible day, cold and rainy, and the sun hadn't come up yet to dry things out. But the Lindberghs didn't care. They had on suits heated by electricity, because they knew that it was going to be even colder where they were going.

"A basket of sandwiches, 400 gallons of gas, and they were ready. It was hard taking off, because the load was heavy, but Lindy got his flat-nosed Sirius into the air beautifully, and they disappeared from sight. Disappeared is the word, because for hours n.o.body saw them. They were looking for them, too, because you can bet on it that as soon as the Lindberghs took off, everybody knew about it. All over the west the cowboys and Indians were gaping up to see the blunt-nosed plane, but n.o.body saw it.

"Then suddenly Anne and Lindy dropped out of the sky at Wichita, Kansas, said h.e.l.lo, they'd like some gas, they'd be in New York about eleven, and sailed off.

"They were in New York around eleven, too, and New York was waiting for them, with auto horns, and whistles, and all the other noise that it can make for people who have gone out and done things. The Lindberghs certainly had done just that. They'd come across the country with one stop in 14 hours and twenty-three minutes and some seconds, and had clipped two and a half hours off the record then standing."

"But what happened out' west?" asked Hal. "Why hadn't anybody seen them?"

"Because you can't see 10,000 feet into the air, and that's where the Lindberghs were flying. Way above the clouds, from 10,000 to 15,000 feet high, flying blind, with the c.o.c.kpits closed to keep out the cold. It's mighty cold 15,000 feet up in the air. Flying blind that way, they had to depend upon their s.e.xtant to keep their course, and Anne Lindbergh did her part by using this. She did all the navigating from the back c.o.c.kpit, and took the controls part of the time when Lindy rested.

"Lindy and Anne hadn't intended to set a record. At least, that wasn't what they set out to do. They wanted to test out flying at high alt.i.tudes, because Lindy believes that planes in the future will fly high to avoid storms and wind, and that blind flying should be encouraged. That's why they flew so high up, out of sight of all landmarks.

"There was no flying for Anne and Lindy after that for a while, because in June that year little Lindy was born. It seems awfully sad now to talk about all the excitement not only in this country, but all over the world when that baby was born. Lindy was the world's hero, and his baby was adopted by everybody just as Lindy had been. n.o.body could have dreamed what a terrible end the Lindbergh baby would come to."

Bob paused. The events of the Lindbergh baby's kidnapping, and the finding of its body a few months later, after the whole world had searched for it, were still fresh. In fact, they were too fresh for Bob to talk about then, and with the silent consent of all the men there, he pa.s.sed over the horrible details of the case, and in a few moments went on with his story.

"The Lindberghs have another baby boy now and everybody in the country will protect this child. People all over the world were heartbroken at the death of their first baby.

"It was when the baby was a year old, and didn't require so much attention, that Anne and Lindy started out on their longest trip, the flight across the Pacific to China and j.a.pan. That was in July of 1931.

There was some delay in choosing the route, because they had to consider all sorts of things, like chances for refueling, and over-water flying distances, but finally they decided that they'd fly across Canada to Point Barrow, in Alaska, and from there to Nome; then across the Ocean to Karaginsk, from there to Nemuro, and on to Tokyo."

Captain Bill broke in. "Good for you for remembering that. Did you memorize the route?"

"I did," said Bob proudly. "I even drew a map of it. They flew roughly northwest, and then south again, making the two sides of a triangle, with the point up at the top of Alaska.

"Well, the Lindberghs made their usual careful preparations. They needed more than a ham sandwich for this trip. The plane they chose was a low-winged Lockheed Sirius with a Wright Whirlwind motor. It was a blunt-nosed s.h.i.+p, painted reddish orange and black. And since they were traveling over water, it had to be equipped with floats. These were a new kind of Edo float, which were grooved on at the bottom to make for less resistance of the water.

"In the tail of the plane they had a pretty complete emergency kit, which would pop out automatically if the plane went under. It had a folding life boat in it, that they could fill from a bottle of compressed air. It was pretty smooth, with a mast and sail and everything, and though they didn't; have to use it, it was a mighty nice thing to have along in case they sat down in the middle of the ocean.

Then, of course, they had food and water, and an emergency radio set, besides the one that Anne Lindbergh was going to use. This emergency one was ready for anything. You couldn't hurt it by getting it wet, or by dropping it. In fact, they tested it by dropping it from a hangar, and then soaking it in water for 24 hours. I wouldn't want anybody to do that to my radio set, but I guess nothing much happened, because the tough radio survived its tests, and went along with the Lindberghs to China. The rest of their equipment included fifty pounds of food, five canteens of water, blankets, and all that sort of thing.

"On July 27th, Anne and Lindy started out. Was.h.i.+ngton was their first stop, to make the first leg official. From there they went to New York, bound for Maine, to say goodbye to the baby. But there was trouble right at the start. About two hours after they had left New York, the Lindberghs had to turn back again. Somebody had tampered with their radio, and put it out of working order. But this was fixed up all right, and they started out again. They got to North Haven, Maine, in about three and a half hours.

"After spending some time at North Haven with Anne's parents and the baby, they left for Ottawa, and from Ottawa for Moose Factory. Just out of Ontario, though, they disappeared. The newspapers ran big headlines, 'Lindberghs Missing.' But they weren't really missing. That is, the Lindberghs knew all along where they were, but their radio was out of order, and they couldn't tell anybody else. Pilots were sent out to search for them, and Pilot Clegg found them in Moose Factory, safe and sound.

"Moose Factory sounds awfully funny, doesn't it? I'd never heard of it, before the Lindberghs landed there, but it's quite a place. All one hundred of its people came out to cheer the flyers.

"On Sunday morning they left Moose Factory, for their 750 mile jump to Churchill Harbor, in Manitoba. The weather wasn't very good for flying-gray and stormy, and the country was gray and flat. All in all, it wasn't a very pleasant leg of their journey, and there was almost nine hours of it. I'll bet they were glad when they flew into Churchill Harbor, and saw the whole town waiting for them. There were only 2,000 people in the town, but then, that probably looked like a pretty big crowd after all that flying over country without seeing anybody or anything. And those 2,000 made up for it by being awfully noisy.

"Baker Lake is 375 miles from Churchill, and that was the next stop.

Just three and a quarter hours after they'd left Churchill Harbor, they got into Baker Lake. Everybody was waiting for them, and everybody in this case was made up of Eskimos. There are only about six white people in the whole place, but they were out, too, and took charge of the Lindberghs when they landed that night. So far so good.

"The Lockheed up to now was working perfectly-the trip was going off as scheduled-just as all of Slim's trips go off as scheduled. From Baker Lake the going was to be harder. The next stop was Aklavik, on the MacKenzie River. Aklavik is pretty far north, just about 130 miles within the Arctic Circle, and the route called for a jump of over 1,000 miles across this cold country. But Slim and Anne made it. They did that 1,000 miles in eleven and a half hours, which was some going. They had the Aurora Borealis with them, because the farther north they went, the brighter the lights grew, and flying at night was as easy as flying by day.

"Aklavik may be cold, but it was warm to the Lindberghs. Slim and Anne saw a lot of things they'd never seen before, and they had what you'd call their first real taste of the arctic. There were all the people you read about up there-Mounties, and Eskimos and fur trappers, who'd trekked in from miles around to see the Lindberghs land. Eskimo kids trailed them around and grinned when they were spoken to.

"They had a lot of time to look around, too, because they had to stay at Aklavik for three days. The weather grounded them, but on August 7th, the sky cleared, and they were off again, now for Point Barrow. Nome was next. But before they got to Nome there was trouble.

"They'd started out from the Point in the morning, and flew all day. All they saw was packed ice for miles around. A thick fog was raising.

Finally at 11 o'clock that night the fog grew so thick that the Colonel and his wife thought it would be best just to sit down and wait for the fog to clear. So that's what they did. They sat down in s.h.i.+smaref Bay, on Kotzebue Sound."

At this point Bob paused significantly, and waited. He had p.r.o.nounced both words without hesitation of any kind, and he was waiting for the praise that he felt was due him. There was a strange silence. So Bob said again: "They sat down on s.h.i.+smaref Bay, on Kotzebue Sound."

This time Captain Bill realized what was required of him. "Good work,"

he said "You got them both without a slip."

Now Bob could go on. "They sat down," he began.

"That they did," interrupted Pat. "They sat down on s.h.i.+smaref Bay on Kotzebue Sound. What heathen names. But we've heard them, and get on with you, lad."

"I am," said Bob, and got on. "They had to wait for ten hours for the fog to lift, and it must have been mighty uncomfortable in the c.o.c.kpits of their planes. When they finally did get started, they found that they couldn't get to Nome after all. The fog drifted up again, and they had to come down-"

Pat broke the silence with a mighty exclamation. "Not on s.h.i.+smaref Bay!"

Bob was cold. "Of course not. This time they came down on Safety Bay, and please don't interrupt."

But there was another interruption, this time from Hal. "Where's Safety Bay?" he asked.

Bob stretched out comfortably. He was satisfied with himself and his story. "I don't know whether you're just trying to test me, or not," he said, "but I'm prepared for you. I've been over every inch of the Lindbergh trip with an atlas, and I know where everything is located, and how to p.r.o.nounce it."

Hal, his pale face lighted up by the moonlight, was obviously impressed, and his large eyes beamed in the light. He was storing up notes for his own story that was to come later.

"Safety Bay," said Bob, "is twenty-one miles from Nome, and mid-way between Nome and Solomon Beach. They call it Safety Bay because fishermen caught in storms out at sea used to come in to the bay for safety. It was a 'safety bay' for the Lindberghs, too, all right. They waited for the fog to lift again, and they finally got to Nome. Nome had been waiting so long for them that it gave them a right royal welcome.

"Nome was an important stop, because the Lindberghs planned to use this as their jumping off place for the hop across the Pacific Ocean to Karagin Island, off the Kamchatkan Peninsula. The Pacific has been crossed before, and was crossed later, too, by Herndon and Pangborn. But it's a tricky place to cross, especially in the northerly part, where the Lindberghs were to cross. It's a place of fog and ice, and quickly changing wind currents, so that a fog can creep up on you and blot out the world in a split second.