magellans of the sky - prologue - summer 2010

8/9/2019 Magellans of the Sky - Prologue - Summer 2010

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By Rob Crotty

In 1924, barely a week ater our Army Air Service pilotsset out rom Seattle to be the rst people to ever circle theglobe by air, the fight commander went missing over the

treacherous coasts o Alaska.

The our planesthe Seattle, Boston, New Orleans, and

Chicagohad taken o together rom Seward to Chignik,

but Maj. Frederick Martins Seattledisappeared into a snow

squall a hundred miles rom their landing site at the remote

Alaskan outpost.

We had been bucking a head wind most o the way and wehad barely enough gas to get us through, wrote Jack Harding,

the mechanic aboard the New Orleans, i we turned back to look

or the Major and [Sgt. Alva] Harvey [the Seattlesmechanic], the

whole expedition would run the risk o being wrecked.

Magellanso f t h e s k y

The Douglas World Cruisers arrive at Seward, Alaska .


2/12

Word came over the radio at Chignik that the major had

been ound and that the Seattlewas being towed to the village

o Kanatak or repairs by one o the Navy destroyers supporting

the fight. Martin explained that he had made a orced landing

at Cape Igvak ater the Seattlesoil pressure dropped to zero. A

three-inch hole in the crankcase below the number ve cylinderhad caused the pressure drop, and once it was xed, Martin

would meet up with the other pilots at Dutch Harbor.

The other pilots pressed on rom Chignik out into the

Aleutian Islands outpost. They made repairs on their Liberty

engines and prepared to make the fight across the Pacic to

Japan as soon as the Seattlearrived. Ater a week they received

news that the weather at Kanatak had nally cleared. With

a little good luck now, [Martin] and Harvey ought to be with

us in a day or so, and then well be o or Japan, wrote Leslie

Arnold, mechanic or the Chicago.

They waited a week. Martin and Harvey never came.

jjj

The aerial circumnavigation o the planet was the latest in a

global pursuit to conquer the skies. Since the Wright brothers at

the turn o the century, fying had become a hobby o nations,

and the rush o aerial developments during World War I had

turned hobby to obsession. Britain, France, Italy, Argentina, and

Portugal were all developing strategies to make their pilots the

rst to circle the globe by air. The rst aerial circumnavigation

would be a badge o honor, not only as proo o a nations ability

to train t pilots but also in its ability to construct a plane

durable enough to withstand icy cold and tropic heat.Americas involvement in the endeavor was born rom the

mind o an unfinchingly ocused man, Gen. Mason Patrick,

the chie o the Army Air Service. Authority is requested,

Patrick wrote in 1923, to send a fight o our Army airplanes

around the world . . . to secure or the United States, the

birthplace o aeronautics, the honor o being the rst country

to encircle the world entirely by air travel.

The war-atigued nation reluctantly accepted, though other

countries with more robust air orces were well into planning

their fights. To be the rst, Patrick had to move quickly. He

coordinated with the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, diplomaticcorps, and even the Bureau o Fisheries to ensure the fights

success. The Navy and diplomatic corps, in particular, had

enormous roles to play.

Each leg o the fight would be less than a thousand miles so

the pilots could service their planes and rest. Around the entire

globe, airelds had to be scouted out or water landings planned,

sometimes in areas where the locals had never seen planes or

F. C. Crosio (Italian ier), 1st Lt. John Harding, Dr. Summer o the USS Richmond, 1st Lt. Erik Nelson, Antonio Locatelli (Italian pilot), and 1st Lt. Lowell

Smith in Reykjavik, Iceland, pose with a painting o the Belle o Iceland. This photo was taken shortly beore Locatellis crew crashed in August 1924.

Magellans o the Sky Prologue 7


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heard o their existence. Where airelds did not

exist, the Navy would provide ships or saety

and logistic support or water landings. The

diplomatic corps had to obtain permission rom

22 separate countries. The recent revolution in

the Soviet Union hampered planning because

the United States did not recognize the new

government there, and so the route was adjusted

south over the lower parts o Asia.

Such logistic considerations quickly made the

world fight one o the largest peacetime military

operations in history, and all rom a military that

was entirely unprepared. It was 1924, and World

War I, thought to be the War to End All Wars,

had made a large standing military unnecessary.

The military industry was so atrophied that an

American-made plane capable o making the

fight did not even exist.

The task o designing an American aircrat

or such a fight ell to Donald Douglas, a

young aircrat designer, and his engineer, Jack

Northrup. What emerged rom the hangar

o his Douglas Aircrat Company 45 days

later was a 38-oot-long, open-cockpit biplane

armed with a 450-horsepower, 12-cylinder

Liberty engine. Four Douglas World Cruisers

were built or the tripthe Seattle, Chicago,

Boston, and New Orleansand, as it was

Prohibition, each was christened with the

spirit o the times, water bottled rom a

source near each o the planes namesakes.

General Patrick hand-picked our pilots

or the journey: Maj. Fredrick Martin would

fy the Seattle, 1st Lt. Lowell Smith would fy

the Chicago, 1st Lt. Leigh Wade would fy the

Boston, and 1st Lt. Erik Nelson would pilot the

New Orleans. All were relatively young pilots

who had proved themselves in the air in one

regard or another and, ater a six-week course

at Langley Field in Hampton, Virginia, were

deemed t to circle the globe.

Nearly a month beore the scheduled fight

date, they were ready. The diplomatic corps

had obtained permission rom countries

around the world. The Navy was positioned to

support the fiers across three oceans and ve

seas. The fiers were ready, their mechanics

chosen, and the planes sat ready in the waters

o Lake Washington in Seattle.

On April 4, 1924, the scheduled departure

date, the lake was covered in og, and the fight

was delayed. By the next morning, the weather

had cleared. With hundreds o spectators lining

the shore, Major Martin sped his fagship plane,

Seattle, down along the calm lake waters only to

smash his propeller, cut a hole in the side o his

plane and damage one o his pontoons. The

fight was delayed a second time.

Americans across the country were anxious

to prove the nations worth in the realm o

fight. They ollowed any success or ailure on

the newswires. Despite the countrys optimism,

aviation was a young proession, and there was

uncertainty whether the men or machines

existed to endure such an undertaking. The

alse starts only conrmed their ears. The

betting in Seattle, Arnold wrote in his diary, is

that not more than one plane will get around.

On April 6, the weather was clear. The fiers

awoke two hours beore dawn and worked

over their planes. As the sun rose, so came

the crowds or a third day to bear witness to

either the start o a triumphant journey or the

opening act o a tragic endeavor.

The pilots taxied out rom Sandpoint Flying

Field and turned to make their approach on

the waters o Lake Washington. The months

o preparation and well-wishing rom ocials

was over, and it had all come down to this.

One-by-one, the planes sped down the lake.

First the Seattle, then theChicago,New Orleans,

and Boston. Their heavy pontoons skimmed

across the water. As the engines revved, the

pontoons lited o rom the water, and nally

they were airborne.

jjj

From Seattle, the airmen would fy a westerly

route. Except Italy, nearly every other nation

planning the pursuit had decided that an

easterly route provided the best odds to

circumnavigate the globe by air. By going east,

the northernmost part o the trip rom Japan

to Alaska was let until late summer, when the

conditions would be more ideal.

Making the trip west in early spring was

considered suicide. It meant acing the cold o

an Alaska spring and ghting against the trade

winds over long stretches o open ocean.

The Americans hedged their bets. I

timed correctly, a westerly route would

avoid typhoon season in Japan and China,

Top: Leslie Arnold and Lowell Smith in ront o the

Chicago at McCook Field, Ohio, toward the end o

the ight.

Above: The Douglas World Cruisers above Seward,

Alaska.

8 Prologue Summer 2010


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monsoon season in India and Burma,

and send them across the north Atlantic

beore winter. And perhaps, as an added

calculation, a westerly route might put the

fiers in Paris or Bastille Day, i they made

it there at all.

jjj

Alaska proved unorgiving. Frozen gusts o

wind called williwaws shot down rom

towering mountain peaks and tossed the

planes like dritwood. Piloting the open-

cockpit Douglas World Cruisers through

the northern squalls required a tolerance or

pain and a pilots intuition since charting by

compass was nearly impossible in the rigid

weather. At night, the airmen woke up every

ew hours to break ice o their planes. It

was Alaskas worst weather in a decade.

Then came Martins crash.

The world waited or news o Martin and

Harvey. Loring Pickering, general manager

o the North American Newspaper Alliance,

oered a $1,000 reward to the person or

persons rst to reach either MAJ Frederick

L. Martin or Sergeant Alva L Harvey or their

airplane Seattle. But by May 2, with no word

rom the major in 8 days, Lieutenant Smith

received a telegram rom General Patrick:

Lieut. Lowell Smith, command World

Flight.

Dont delay longer waiting or Major

Martin. See that everything possible

done to nd him. Planes two, three,

and our to proceed to Japan at earliest

possible moment.

Only a ew paces into their marathon journey,

they had lost their commander and their

fagship plane. As the ranking ocer among

a crew o lieutenants and sergeants, command

ell to Smith, pilot o the Chicago.

LOwELL H. SMITH

An oil man, auto mechanic, and college

student, it wasnt until 1915 that Smith, a

notoriously shy man, discovered his passion

or fying. Having moved to Mexico to

join Pancho Villas army in the struggle or

Mexican independence, the bandit general put

Smiths skills as a mechanic to use and made

Smith the engineering ocer or Villas entire

air orcethree planes in total. Not long ater

his arrival, though, Villas feet was destroyed:

the rst plane crashed into an adobe hut, the

second was riddled with bullets, and the third

nosedived into the ground. Smith was suddenly

without a job, but he had ound his calling.

No sooner had America entered the First

World War than Smith joined the Air Service.

He was assigned to be an instructor in Kelly

Field, Texas, and a handul o his students

went on to become aces in a war o which

Smith would only see the closing act.

Armistice was only the beginning o Smiths

fight career, though. In 1923 he broke 16 records

or military aircrat in speed, endurance, and

distance by staying airborne 37 hours and 15

minutes at an average speed o 88.5 miles an hour,

covering enough ground to cross the Atlantic

twice. He pioneered the rst aerial reueling

o a plane, climbing out onto the planes wing

midfight to attach the gas line to his aircrat. He

served on an aerial re patrol in the Northwest

and covered swaths o orest where no plane

could land in an emergency. He was the rst to

fy nonstop rom Canada to Mexico, and on a

later mission in Nogales, Mexico, he achieved

near-legendary status by locating a small hut 110

miles into the desert using only his sixth sense to

guide him. It was that same intuition that made

him an ideal ocer to lead Americas airmen

around the world.

JAPAN

On May 15, the pilots let Attu, Alaska, or

the 870-mile fight to a small town in Japan

called Paramushiru, where reporters and sailors

waited to announce the rst successul crossing

o the Pacic by plane. The only other landing

area in the cold barren sea was a small string o

islands called the Komandorskis, which were

controlled by the Soviets, who were on such

poor political terms with the United States tha

no arrangements had been made.

The men set o in reezing temperature

or Japan rom the small outpost o Attu

By noon they passed over the last stretch o

American soil and were fying above one o

the most treacherous stretches o water in the

world, where the rigid Bering Sea clashes with

the Pacic. Black storm clouds appeared on

the horizon and barricaded their fight path

Smith could either direct the fiers through

the storm or head or Russian waters.

The choice or Smith was easy. Better to risk

a political storm than one made by Mothe

Nature. He aimed or Copper Island, a one-

mile-wide break o rock more than 270 miles

away and inside Russian territory.

The fiers landed outside the village o

Nikolski, on Copper Island, where the U.S

Navy ship Eider had positioned hersel ate

being signaled by the pilots that they had

changed course. Not long ater, a boat put

out rom shore with ve men aboard, two o

whom were in uniorm and all o whom were

thoroughly, and understandably, conused: thi

Magellans o the Sky

The original caption reads: Major F. L. Martin

and Sgt. Harvey, taken on return to civilization

ater being lost in Alaska or 10 days when plane

crashed into the side o a mountain.

Prologue 9


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was the rst time in history a plane had ever

crossed the Pacic, and no one had told them

about it.

The Russians asked the fiers to stay aboard

the Eideruntil they received instructions rom

their superiors in Moscow. Later that night, the

ocials sent out vodka as a goodwill gesture

to the pilots. When word nally came in rom

Moscow the next day, the fiers were told they

were orbidden rom landing and had to leave.

With the weather clear and the planes already

prepared or takeo, Smith and his team happily

obliged. A ew hours later, they were fying

over Cape Shipunski, Japan. They landed in

Paramushiru at 11:37 a.m. Icicles dangled rom

their clothes. It was a miserable fight, but the

rst o its kind: they had just completed the rst

aerial crossing o the Pacic in human history.

Congratulations poured in.

Kashiwabara, Paramushiru, Kurile

Islands, Japan: Congratulations. Yours

is the honor o being the rst to cross

the Pacic by air. Through its Army

and Navy, our country has the honor o

having led in the crossing o both great

oceans. The Army has every aith in

your ability to add the circumnavigation

o the globe to its achievements.

John W. Weeks

Secretary o War

MARTIN AND HARVEY

On May 10, Native Alaskan Jake Orolo

saw two gures walking along the remote

beach o Moller Bay. It was an uncommon

sightthe only people in this rozen part o

the Alaskan territory worked in the cannery

or lived in the nearby villageand he knew

who all o them were.

The men were dressed strangely in thick

bundles o clothes. One had a pistol strapped

around his waist. The other wore what looked

like a pilots hat on his head. Both were red

with burns rom the wind and sun.

Orolo escorted the desperate-looking

men to the cannery, where the superintendent

and his men appeared as overjoyed to see the

strangers as they were to see him. Immediately

the superintendent recognized the two downed

airmen rom the round-the-world-fight. The

radio waves had buzzed with news o Martin

and Harvey's disappearance, and now the

amous fiers were standing in his cannery.

Word o their rescue fashed across the

newswires. It was the rst sign o lie rom the

two since their crash on April 25. As Martin

explained later in his diary, he and Sergeant

Harvey had crashed into a mountainside in

the og between Chignik and Dutch Harbor

ater becoming disoriented. Both survived

the crash with only minor wounds but were

lost in the remote Alaskan wilderness.

The rst and second night they burned

parts o their plane to stay warm, smoked

tobacco, and alternated sleeping. The

thick og that had caused their crash now

inhibited their rescue. By the third day, with

no sign o the weather liting and mindul

o the risk o stumbling o a precipice in

the og, they started walking. Taking

doses o their emergency liquid rations

or energytwo tablespoons constituted

a mealthey made their way down the

mountain ollowing a creek bed until, on

May 6, they nal ly reached the ocean shore.

Along the bay, they ound an unoccupied

cabin lled with hotcakes and other ood.

They recovered their strength and rested

their eyesboth were heavily aected by

snow blindnessand reconnoitered their

position. On the tenth, they set out again.

Later that aternoon, they were rescued.

For General Patrick, news o Martins rescue

meant the major could reassume command o

the fight. The only question was how to catch

the ast-moving crew. Patricks plan was to

send Martin eastward to intercept the fight,

but the plan was never executed.

For Martin and Harvey, their lives had

been saved, but the race was over.

ASIA

The greetings the remaining six airmen

received in Asia were each more grandiose

than the last. For fyboys more interested

in aerodynamics than diplomacy, what

happened ater landing was oten the most

dicult part o the day.

Lieutenant Arnold, Smiths mechanic, was

the unocial speaker or the group. When

Smith, a quiet and shy man, was asked to

talk, he would say a ew words and deer to

Arnold, who was as comortable behind a

podium as he was behind the controls o his

Douglas World Cruiser.

Arnold had sold pianos and tobacco

beore signing up or the war in 1917. Ater

the Armistice, he stayed in the Army and

was ordered to fy exhibitions at county airs


6/12

to stir up interest in the service. On one

occasion he few straight o a cli and into

a chicken coup. He telegraphed or another

plane and was back in the air the next day.

This same tenacity proved eective in

assuaging crowds rom Tokyo to Constan-

tinople. At times there were 40,000 people

waiting or the fiers to land. In Kagoshima,

20,000 Japanese children lined up along

the shore sang My Country Tis o Thee

as the fiers landed. In Shanghai so many

junks and sampans lled the Yangtze that

the New Orleanshad to swerve around the

river crat on takeo.

But it wasnt until Indochina that Arnolds

social graces were put to the test. Over the

jungle country, on the leg between Haiphong

and Saigon, the Chicagos engine started to

burn red hot. Something was wrong. First,

a connecting rod broke. Next, the crankcase

punctured. Smith and Arnold had to land,

and so they chose a small lagoon in the vast

Asian jungle and set down.

The Boston and New Orleans swooped

down and dropped o what water they

had, but it was barely enough to last the

morning in the swampy June heat. The

pilots promised to return or the downed

fiers, but no one knew how soon a rescue

could be mounted.

Once the Boston and New Orleans de-

parted, Smith and Arnold were alone. The

tropical heat was a marked change rom the

cold air o the Bering Sea they had endured

only a ew weeks beore. It didnt take long

to work through their water rations. Thirst

set in. Crocodiles circled.

The lieutenants knew rom the bamboo

shing traps in the lagoon that people had

to live nearby, but neither knew i the locals

would treat them as guests or intruders.

A dugout canoe launched rom shore. A

man with worn black teeth and wearing a

breechcloth foated toward the plane. He

paused, and then untied the plane rom the

bamboo rod o his shing trap and moved

back. Other boats launched ater him, and

beore the two knew it, their plane crawled

with curious locals.

Eventually three missionaries set out rom

the thick orest. Arnold explained their

situation in Doughboy French. They were

downed pilots rom America, and they were

thirsty. The missionaries took Arnold ashore.

Despite their titles, the missionaries were

tough negotiators. The rst who arrived

on the scene was only interested in buying

cigarettes rom the airmen, and when they

would not oblige, he grufy paddled away.

Now on shore, the missionaries showed

him the creek rom which they pulled

their water, but to Arnold it looked etid.

He knew rom his training in Virginia that

waterborne diseases could easily end the trip

and searched or something else or him and

Smith to drink. At the makeshit chapel he

ound a suitable drink, the communion

wine, something the missionaries were

reluctant to part with.

Arnold searched his wallet or something

to bargain with. All he had was a solitary

50-dollar billabout 600 dollars in todays

currencybut he was desperate and made

the oer. The missionaries agreed, and

Arnold hurried back to the Chicago to give

the wine to Smith, who had been out in the

sun protecting the plane rom locals. But

it was too late, Smith had already turned

desperate and drunk rom the lagoon. Day

later, he contracted dysentery.

Lieutenant Nelson in the New Orleanshad

no less trouble getting back to Smith and

Arnold. Ater landing in Tourane in French

Indochina, he immediately sent out a rescue

crew to locate the Chicago. The team asked

local missionaries or any news o airplanes

and word came back rom a native shing

crew that they had seen two monsters

fying in the air earlier in the day. Using

their bearings, Nelson knew he had ound

their fight path.

By nightall, the team was reunited

and the next day canoes were pulling the

Chicago past elephants and tigers and toward

civilization. Soon ater, the Chicago,Boston

and New Orleanspressed on.

INDIA

In Calcutta, with sacred bulls shading unde

the wings o their crats, the fiers exchanged

the heavy pontoons or wheels and mingled

with the British troops stationed there.

Ater a long day o fying rom Calcutta

the Boston touched down in Allahabad

Wade and Sgt. Henry Ogden stepped o

the plane. They wiped the sweat rom thei

brows and did their best to hide rom the

unbearable sun. They were reluctant to

service the plane, add oil, and check the

engine beore another night o glad-handing

with government ocials and little sleep.

They settled into the task o servicing the

plane when they heard an unamiliar noise

Opposite, left: The Russian welcoming party approach

the Eiderwhen the crew made an emergency landing

in the Komandorskis, May 15, 1924.

Opposite, right: Spectators gather along the shore

at Kagoshima, Japan, waiting or the arrival o the

Round-the-World Fliers ater the frst successu

crossing o the Pacifc by airplane.

Left: The New Orleans gets serviced in Allahabad

India.

Prologue 1


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Ater 10,000 miles they knew every sound

the machine made and what it meant,

except or this.

It sounded like struggling. It was coming

rom the baggage compartment. The baggage

door swung open, and a amiliar sweating man

popped out rom inside the compartment. He

waved.

It was Linton Wells, an Associated Press

reporter who had ollowed the boys rom

Japan. When the fiers switched rom pontoons

to wheels in Calcutta, Wells explained, they

shaved hundreds o pounds o their weight and

so he knew the World Cruisers could support

the weight o another man, even i there was no

seat or him. So he sneaked aboard.

The fiers were as delighted as they were

surprised: Wells was a passionate reporter

and had endeared himsel to them as a

constant companion across much o Asia.

In India, Wells was supposed to hand over

reporting o the world fight to another

Associated Press reporter but was too

interested in the fight to give it up. So, with

a toothbrush and pencil, he stowed himsel

away in the Boston. Smith cabled General

Patrick to see i the reporter could tag along

the rest o the fight but received no word

back. Smith gave Wells the OK, and the

crew pushed onto Karachi.

NELSON AND HARDING

An hour outside the booming Indian town,

the engine in the New Orleanspoured white

smoke. Soon oil spilled out its sides. The

ground below was cracked desert foor, and

any landing would wreck the plane. For

pilot Erik Nelson, a crashed landing meant

the end o the world fight.

Nelson had circumnavigated the world

beore. Twice, in act. Like the rest o the

round-the-world team, Nelsons proclivity or

school was slight, and his desire or adventure

strong. By the time he was 16 he had ound

his calling on the open sea. A Swede by birth,

Nelson rst worked as a hand on a barque with

a Swedish crew. While cruising the waters o

Uruguay, Russia, and the United States, he

taught himsel English. Soon he was on British

boats. By 1909, hearing that deckhands on

American racing yachts were well paid, he

made his way to Hoboken, New Jersey, and

toward American citizenship. By 1917 Nelson

had tried to enlist in the Esquadrille Laayette

and twice in the U.S. Army Air Service beore

he was accepted. By 1919 he was setting records

on fights across the Grand Canyon and rom

New York to Nome, Alaska. He was not a man

to give up easily.

His mechanic was just as resilient. Second

Lt. Jack Harding hadnt circumnavigated

the globe, but he had circumnavigated the

continental United States by air on the 1919

Round-the-Rim-Flight. Harding rst

impressed another world fier, Les Arnold,

on an earlier fight when he climbed out over

the engine and made midair repairs to the

machine so they would not have to land.

Now here Nelson and Harding were,

more than 12,500 miles rom Seattle,

halway around the world over India, and

their hopes o circling the globe by air were

dissolving in ront o them.

One o the engines pistons snapped. Two

other cylinders broke apart. The planes exhaust

springs shot out through the exhaust stacks.

The engine was literally alling apart as the two

inched on to Karachi. One o the pieces grazed

Hardings temple. The motor stopped dead.

Then restarted. Hot oil poured out o the engine

block and onto Nelson. Every ew minutes he

wiped his goggles o with a cheesecloth so he

could see. For 75 miles Nelson dropped the

plane 500 eet or so to keep the engine rom

overheating and then rose back up to dip again,

barely keeping the machine alive.

Then, Karachi.

When Nelson and Harding landed, they

had lost more than 11 gallons o oil, more than

a third o what the cruiser carried. A crowd

was there to see the plane limp in, black muck

dripping o everything rom its pilots to the

New Orleanssrudder. It was the Fourth o July.

One o the men in the crowd, the American

consul, handed Smith a telegram rom

General Patrick. It was regarding Wells, who

12 Prologue


8/12

had already fown in the Bostons tiny baggage

compartment or more than 1,700 miles.

Request disapproved, it read.

PARIS

From Baghdad to Constantinople the fiers

traversed land marked with the ravages

o war. All were ancient sites worthy o

a lietime o explorationPersia, Iraq,

Syriabut Smith allowed no time in their

schedule or undue delays. They all had

their eye on Paris and were determined to

make it there by Bastille Day.

They touched down on July 14 at Le

Bourget Aerodome, the same stretch o land

where, three years later, Charles Lindbergh

would land the Spirit o St Louis. Throngs

o Frenchmen and Americans cheered their

arrival. Gen. Blackjack John Pershing

greeted them as did the French president,

who escorted them to the ongoing Olympic

games. Less than seven years earlier, Nelson

and Wade had ought against the Richthoens

Flying Circus over this same land. Arriving in

Paris had a sense o homecoming or the both

o them, they wrote.

Above Bastille Day, the Olympics, and

their arrival to amiliar lands, the pilots had

something else to celebrate: the fiers had set

a new speed record between Tokyo and Paris,

blasting past the old record by two ull days.

But with news o the progress o the other world

fightsBritain and Italy were both gaining

groundthe team had to press onward, next

across the English Channel and up to the

scuttled German feets at Scapa Flow.

The fiers prepared to cross the cold northern

Atlantic. They switched rom wheels back to

pontoons in England and waited or the Navy

ships to position themselves. For 13 days the

fiers waited or the appropriate conditions and

or the logistical support necessary to traverse

the dangerous waters. Then they were o.

LEIGH wADE

Leigh Wade, pilot or the Boston, was one o

the youngest airmen on the fight. Born in

1897 in Michigan, Wade ound his way into

the Army through the North Dakota Nationa

Guard. It was with this same outt that he

went down to Mexico in 1916 to deend th

border rom raids by Pancho Villa, the same

outlaw-general Lowell Smith was serving.

In World War I, Wade was tapped to be

one o the rst two airmen to introduce aeria

acrobatic maneuvers to service pilots, rom

vertical banks to loops and nosedives. Like

most o the pilots, the Great War was only the

beginning o a great fying career or Wade

who in his service would reach the rank o

major general and share the pilots seat with

aviator luminaries like Amelia Earhart.

Ater the Armistice, Wade set the record o

the highest-altitude fight in 1919 by reaching

27,120 eet as a test pilot, an extraordinary

height considering it was an open-cockpi

plane. By author and later noted radio

newscaster Lowell Thomass count, Wade, a

a test pilot, calmly and successully landed a

least two planes that were on re.

In the cold stretch o og between England

and Iceland, he would land a third broken

plane.

THE ATLANTIC

Ater nearly two weeks o delays, the pilots wer

fying again. On their rst trans-Atlantic journey

thick og separated the crew o the New Orlean

rom the Boston and Chicago. As Nelson told

it, the og was so bad that he could only see six

inches in ront o him. Soon he was caught in the

wash o one o the other planes, lost control o his

own aircrat, and went tumbling down.

Separated and worried or their partne

plane, the Chicago and Boston returned to

England. It wasnt until they arrived that they

Left: Oil covers the New Orleans ater landing in

Karachi, India.

Center: The World Fliers in Paris, France, with

Gen. John Pershing. Let to right: Lieutenants

Ogden, Arnold, and Smith; General Pershing; and

Lieutenants Wade, Nelson, and Harding.

Bottom: The original caption reads, Gobs rom

U.S.S. Richmond getting ready to put the New

Orleanson the beach.

Prologue 1


9/12

learned the New Orleanscrew was all right and

had carried on to Hornajord, Iceland, where

they would wait or the other planes.

Over the same stretch o water the next

day, Wades crat began hemorrhaging oil.

There was nothing to do. Wade landed the

Boston in the desolate waters. He signaled

the Chicago not to land due to the heavy

wash o the sea, and so Smith and Arnold

circled the Boston and then few or help.

Some hundred miles o, they dropped a letter

at a village telling o the downed aircrat and

then shot toward the nearest Navy destroyer,

Billingsby. Without a place to land and with no

radio, Arnold would have to drop a note on the

ships deck explaining what had happened to

the Boston. He only had two notes, and i he

missed his mark, there was no telling how long

it might take to mount a rescue. The ship was

traveling nearly 20 knots. Calculating the right

time to drop the message to the deckhands

below was impossible. Smith circled. Arnold

aimed and dropped the rst message. It

missed. He tied the second message to his own

lie preserver, aimed, and dropped the last and

nal note they had explaining the whereabouts

o the Boston. It missed, too.

Understanding the panic o the pilots

above, one o the Billingsbysailors dived into

the rigid waters and retrieved the message.

The captain read it immediately and signaled

that he understood with three blasts o the

whistle. The crew radioed nearby ships o the

emergency landing, including the Richmond,

and then set o to nd the fiers. TheBillingsby

shot o in such hot pursuit o the fiers

coordinates that she burned the paint right o

her smokestacks, according to Thomas.

Hours later, adrit in the cold ocean, a

trawler had spotted fares shooting up rom

the downed plane.

Do you want any help? the skipper yelled.

Well, I should say we do! Wade replied,

fummoxed at the question.

As the trawler unsuccessully attempted

to tow the Boston to land, the Navy

cruiser Richmond arrived. The sea rolled

tremendously, and as the crew attempted to

move the World Cruiser, one o the wings

dipped under a wave and popped like a

ragile bone. Still, with the Richmondthere,

they could hoist the damaged plane onto

its decks, return to Kirkwall, and nish the

fight ater some repairs.

But in the heavy sea, the tackle was

wrenched loose rom the main mast and the

plane crashed into the water, destroying the

The proposed route or the Round-the-World Flight. One o the largest shits in the planned ight path occurred in the United States, where the route was

diverted south to avoid the higher altitude ranges o the Rockies.

14 Prologue Summer 2010


10/12

Bostons pontoons. A second attempt was

made to hoist the plane on board, but the

weather grew too violent to hoist the plane.

The only hope now was to tow the Boston

in, and so the Richmond made a straight

line or land.

All night long they worked toward the

coast, and all night long the crew watched

their plane, expecting the worse. Exhausted,

and with nothing let to do, the pilots went

to sleep. A mile o shore, just ater 5 a.m.

they were awakened.

The Boston had capsized. They were out

o the race.

jjj

They had been traveling or ve months

and covered nearly 20,000 miles o land,

sea, and air. The round-the-world team had

lost hal its ships, and now there were only

two stretches o water to cross beore the

remaining fiers reached North America:

rom Iceland to Greenland, and then across

the Atlantic to Labrador.

Only Italy and America had pilots let in the

race, and both sets o pilots were in Iceland.

Britains Maj. Stuart MacLaren had let England

on March 25 to complete his world fight but

had wrecked crossing the Pacic only weeks

beore. Maj. Sarmento De Beires o Portugal

had made it rom Lisbon to Macao, but his

plane had become stranded ater landing in a

cemetery. With the Boston gone, only three air

shipsthe Chicago, New Orleans, and Italian

pilot Antonio Locatellis Dornier-Walwere in

the running to be the rst around the globe.

On August 21, accepting an invitation to fy

with the Americans so the Italian could benet

rom the protection o the U.S. Navy cruisers

and destroyers, Locatelli, Smith, and Nelson

departed the island country together. Locatell

did his best to stay with the slower Dougla

World Cruisers, but soon the Italian had shot o

ahead o the Chicago andNew Orleans.

For the rst 500 miles, the air was clear

enough that the fiers could see that the crew

o the Navy ship Billingsbyhad painted the

words GOOD LUCK in huge white letter

on the deck. But then, about a hundred miles

out rom Greenland, high winds and og

socked in the fiers. The airmen hovered abov

the waves to escape the og, but the weather

crawled down with them. Visibility dropped

to a hundred eet. As they came closer to land

icebergs appeared. At a speed o 90 miles an

hour, turns were made in split seconds. It wa

dangerous fying. And then what they eared

would happen, did. Smith later wrote:

Diving through a small patch o extra heavy

Magellans o the Sky Prologue 1


11/12

og that was clinging close to the water, we

emerged on the other side to nd ourselves

plunging straight toward a wall o white. The

New Orleanswas close behind us with that

huge berg looming in ront. I banked steeply

to the right. . . . Both let wings seemed to

graze the edge o the berg as we shot past it.

And in ar less time that it takes to tell it, the

two planes were lost rom each other.

The Chicago pressed on to Frederiksdal and

landed. Forty tense minutes later, out o the og

came the New Orleans. For many o the natives,

they were the rst planes they had ever seen.

There was no sign o Locatelli. With his

aster monoplane the Italian should have

arrived rst, but he had not. He was missing.

News o the downed Italian pilot spread

quickly, and soon General Patrick had

radioed back instructions or his search:

Authorization granted to exercise every

acility and to spare no eort in the

search or Locatelli

Eighty hours o search ensued. Given ocean

drit and the fight path, the Navy determined

Locatelli could be anywhere in an area the

size o Maryland. It was the Richmond, the

same ship that had lighted on the Boston, that

ound the downed crew our days later, tired

and hungry on the beaten remains o their

monoplane, but otherwise all right.

While the world fiers struggled through

the og and icebergs, Locatelli had ound the

weather too much and put down on the water to

wait out the storm. But the water was deceptively

rough, and when it came time to take o again,

his plane was rollicked by the icy waves.

Now, the hopes o a world fight rested

on the shoulders o our young Americans

and the wings o two battered planes, the

Chicago and the New Orleans.

jjj

From a remote beach in Greenland, the crews o

the two planes prepared or their nal oceanic

fight. While the plane engines were relatively

newDouglas Aircrat Company had built 15

Liberty engines or the entire tripthe aircrat

themselves had endured more terrain and more

travel than any plane o the era. The North

American continent was less than 600 miles

away, but to circle the globe meant not only

reaching North America, but crossing it, too.

The crews o the Chicago and New Orleans

set out early in the morning. The New Orleans

took o with ew issues. The Chicago was less

ortunate. Water take-os were a routine problem

or the aircrat. The heavy pontoons and the large

planes created suction on smooth waters that

required an immense amount o horsepower to

break. Ater two hours o alse departures, the

Chicago nally broke ree, and the two planes

were airborne or their last open-water leg.

Ater a ew miles o og interlaced with

the same icebergs that had nearly killed

them on the fight rom Iceland, the weather

broke, and it was a rare clear day in the

Arctic waters. But as Labrador grew on the

western horizon, the og returned.

As the planes negotiated through the

poor weather, the Chicagosengine started to

hemorrhage oil. Arnold diagnosed the problem

quickly. The uel pump had malunctioned.

The plane had essentially suered a heart

attack, and the secondary uel pump would not

work either. Arnold immediately took over the

task, hand-pumping oil through the engines

veins to keep it airborne. He had to keep the

planes heart beating long enough to reach

the protected bays o the remote Canadian

wilderness. They were our hours away.

jjj

On shore, at a remote outpost called Icy

Tickle in Labrador, reporters had waited

a month to catch the fiers landing on the

opposite side o the continent they had let

almost hal a year ago. Word had passed

that today might be the day.

In the distance, the low roar o the Liberty

engines cut through the air, and the reporters

clambered up the desolate rocks to sight one

o the planes. Then, there they were. First one

plane, and then a second close behind.

Movie cameras cranked rom ashore and on

small skis in the bay as the two planes landed.

The Chicago was covered rom top to tail in

murky oil. Lieutenant Arnold had manually

pumped the Chicagos engine or our hours.

I pumped until I thought I couldnt pump

anymore, Arnold explained. Then Id look

down at the cold water and start all over again.

On August 31, they touched down on

the American continent or the rst time in

20,000 miles.

AND HOME AGAIN

On the nal stretch to America, the Chicago was

plagued with troubles. Ater landing at Hawkes

Bay, Newoundland, Arnold discovered that

the battery terminal had snapped. By Nova

President Coolidge met the iers at Bolling Field in

Washington, D.C. Let to right: Lieutenants Arnold

and Smith, President Coolidge, Secretary o War John

W. Weeks, General Patrick, Lieutenant Wade, Gen.

Billy Mitchell, and Lieutenants Nelson and Ogden.

Summer 2010


12/12

Certainly the most comprehensive work on the First World Flight is Lowell Thomass The First World Flight

(1925). The book is largely a narrative compiled rom the diaries and interviews o the pilots and mechanics and

includes maps and rare photographs o the fight. It is currently out o print.

A handul o web sites tell the story o the First World Flight and have some wonderul pictures and

separate accounts o the journey.

National Museum o the Air Force: This site provides a day-by-day account o the fight as excerpted

rom the pilots diaries or newspaper reports at the time. It is a very detailed account or those looking

to dig deeper into the fights details. (www.nationalmuseum.a.mil/research/index.asp)

Seattle World Cruiser Aerodrome: This is a great orum or persons interested in the historic fight.

(http://seattleworldcruiser.org/)

U.S. Centennial o Flight Commission: This site has an essay (Around the World in 175 Days) pri-

marily ocusing on the development o the Douglas World Cruisers by Douglas and Northrup. (www.

centennialofight.gov/essay/Aerospace/Douglas_World_Trip/Aero27.htm)

Also o particular assistance was the sta at Air Force Historical Society Oce at Bolling Aireld in Washington,

D.C. The Air Service Newsletters there (available over e-mail) provide detailed accounts o Major Martins crash and a

ew other details regarding the Atlantic leg o the trip, in particular between Iceland and the fights arrival in Boston.

The National Archives contains a tremendous amount o inormation on the fight.

Record Group 18, Records o the Army Air Forces, Central Decimal File, 19171938, decimal #373,

boxes 727729, holds the correspondence o the Army Air Service relating to the fight. Various

telegrams, congratulatory letters ollowing the fight, and nancial detai ls are all in this section.

Record Group 59, General Records o the Department o State, Central Decimal File 19101963 (19101929

segment), decimal #811.2300, boxes 74837484, contains the les pertaining to the dilmi m

fi. T w x ld d, mly dli wi y m d

lil d wi l fi il. bx 7484 i wll.

Rd g 342, Rd .. ai F mmd, 342-Fh, viddi #3b-07833 08216,

i fi. T w l iv id i i, m

im d . FH, videodisc #3B-07833 to 08216, contains the photographs o the fight. Thereare a ew glass negatives outside o this section, but most o the images are housed here.

Record Group 342, Records o U.S. Air Force Commands, 342-USAF 17686, also has motion pic-

tures o the fight, which will be on the National Archives YouTube site (www.youtube.com/usnation-

alarchives).

The National Air and Space Archives o the Smithsonian Institution created a nding aid or the

National Archives holdings relating to the fight. As a word o caution, many o the documents listed in

the nding aid a re split between the Washington, D.C, and College Park, Maryland, acilit y. The nding

aid is available online at http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=ull=3100001~!229645!0.

The Chicago is on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum: www.nasm.si.edu/collections/

artiact.cm?id=A19250008000.

ote on ources

Scotia it was the spreader bar that had broken.

The plane was alling apart.

In Pictou Bay, the crews o the three

planes were reunited. Lt. Leigh Wade and

Sgt. Henry Ogden had been rushed the only

other Douglas World Cruiser in the world

(Douglass original prototype), dubbed it the

Boston II, and were ready to nish what they

started so many miles ago. They would cross

into the United States together.

At Boston, namesake o the Boston and the

Boston II, the world fiers were greeted by a

21-gun salute and the largest crowd yet since

departing nearly hal a year earlier. General

Patrick escorted the fiers in, and soon enough

they were receiving speeches rom the governor

at the capitol building and parading to their

hotel with police escorts.

The pomp and circumstance ollowed them

across the country. On September 5 the fiers

had touched down in the United States, but

it took another 23 days to make it to Seattle,

where, six months and six days ater departing,

they completed the world fight.

It was not weather or the strained engines that

delayed them on the fight across the country

but the spectators who were so eager to catch a

glimpse o what were called the Magellans o

the sky. In New York it was the Prince o Wales

and the states senator, James Wadsworth, who

greeted them. In Washington, D.C., at Bolling

Field it was President Coolidge himsel. He,

along with his entire cabinet, had waited more

than our hours on a wet autumn day to see the

fiers. In Chicago,a larger crowd turned out than

anywhere else. By Texas, Smith and Arnolds logs

read the usual reception was held, clearly tired

o the ame they had earned.

In San Diego, one o the debated start points

o the trip, 26 escort planes landed alongside the

three world cruisers. 35,000 people turned out

at the stadium to catch a glimpse o the fiers

that night. In Los Angeles, 200,000 spectators

gathered at the eld and overran the police

guards. Smith wrote that it was impossible to

reuel the planes owing to the crowd, so they

were delayed there an extra day.

At 1:28 p.m. on September 28, the Chicago and

New Orleanslanded in Seattle wingtip to wingtip

so that none would know who landed rst.

Seventy-six fights in 66 days had taken

them the 26,345 miles around the world.

Overall, 175 days had passed since their

departure, the balance spent grounded

making repairs or waiting or clear weather.

According to General Patrick, the fight had

cost $177,481.35about 2 million dollars in

todays currencya small price that launched

our men around the world and into history.

The airmen had accomplished a eat that

no other country had achieved beore or since,

save one other American pilot in 2000 who

circled the globe in a single-engine, open-

cockpit plane like the fiers who made the trip

over 75 years earlier.

The airmen o the world fight operated

on the will o a nation and the youthul gu

o aeronautics to accomplish what Genera

Patrick called the greatest achievement in

[the] history o aviation. P

To learn more about: Te early years of aviation,

www.archives.gov/publica-

tions/prologue/2003/Winter/.

Te Wright Brothers rst

fi, www.archives.gov/

southeast/education/d lik R

y , li.

Other historic air and space ights, go to

www.archives.gov/historical-docs/ d lik

all 11 Fli pl.

Prologue 1Magellans o the Sky

magellans of the sky - prologue - summer 2010

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