Ocean Flyer

“ Their monster aeroplane successfully crossed the Atlantic—traversing Massachusetts, the Gulf of Maine, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, 1,709 miles of trackless water, Ireland, the Irish Sea—and delivered the plates of the Telegram’s special coronation edition safely to the Herald representatives in Hyde Park, London, at twenty-five minutes after one o’clock the next day. The story of the preparations for these marvelous feats, with a full description of the Ocean Flyer, its unique ideas and a detailed account of its now celebrated crew, appears below. ”

“ Then followed a full page of the matter that Bob and Buck had written and a graphic story, written by night city editor Latimer, of how the Herald discovered the Ocean Flyer, of the “beat” that was not printed and a full account of Ned Napier and Alan Hope, the “Airship Boys.”
When the Ocean Flyer reached the yards of the aeroplane factory in Newark fifteen minutes later and came to a final stop, there was no more demonstration than might have followed a half hour’s flight out over the marshes. President Atkinson was awaiting his friends. ”

“ Stewart rushed the prepared “take” of copy to the city editor’s desk and continued:
“It is from this new metal that the car, planes and truss of the Ocean Flyer are constructed. The aeroplane is modeled in general after the body and wings of a gull in full flight, insuring, by its peculiar construction, not only the greatest speed, but, by an ingenious adaptation of the same gull’s wing, the automatic stability long striven for by aeroplane builders.” ”

“ Impossible!” ejaculated the visitor, gaping at the picture.
“I don’t wonder at your surprise,” responded the managing editor, “but that’s exactly what they accomplished in their Ocean Flyer—the largest and highest-powered aircraft ever devised—a vessel capable of carrying six or seven passengers at a consistent velocity of two hundred miles and more per hour; an airship which can be easily operated at a height of eight or ten miles, where the driver of any other machine would either freeze to death or die from lack of oxygen.” ”

“ Propellers made alone for the heavy air of the lower altitudes are not adapted to use in the rarefied atmosphere seven or eight miles up. The Ocean Flyer has propellers that compress the thin air of the upper levels. Gasoline engines doing their best work when ordinary air is used in the explosion chambers are far less efficient when air at one-half or one-fourth pressure is used. ”

“ You boys have the airship that can do this and I think you have the daring to try it. If you do it with no other purpose than to show that a flight across the Atlantic is a possibility, you will get for it glory and fame—both empty rewards. ”

“ The flight of some of these birds has been measured. Four miles a minute or two hundred and forty miles an hour is not uncommon.”
The surprised manager made no comment.
“The mathematical possibilities of airship speed,” resumed Ned, “are based on height or altitude. The maximum of speed at or near sea level is no indication of what may be accomplished miles in the air. Let me explain. Say we have an airship such as the Ocean Flyer that can fly two hundred miles an hour near sea level where the air pressure is greatest.” ”

“ For the last fifteen minutes a new problem had mystified him: “Why was his managing editor so interested in the new aeroplane?” The cross examination he had undergone the night before gave him many clues. The instant Bob Russell spoke of a Herald burgee for the Ocean Flyer, Buck’s mental short circuit was repaired: “They’re goin’ to represent the Herald,” he concluded instantly—not stopping to reason,—“and this car is goin’ to cross the Atlantic. Whatever these kids meant to do, the boss has now hooked up with ’em. The biggest thing they can do is to fly to Europe. ”

“ It left London at one minute after two o’clock yesterday afternoon. Distance traveled 3,218.1 miles. Time, twelve hours and eight minutes. Highest speed, 205.2 miles an hour. Greatest altitude, 31,000 feet. Lowest temperature, 2° above zero. The monster triple-planed Ocean Flyer, with a daring crew of five men, has conquered the air at last. Under the auspices of the Herald and Telegram, Captain Ned Napier and his associate Alan Hope, left New York Wednesday, June 21, at one o’clock, twenty-one minutes and twenty-two seconds in the afternoon. ”

“ And now a last word to everybody: the rolling and plunging of a vessel on the water is steadiness itself compared with some of the sudden motions the Flyer may make; do not pass from one part of the ship to another except when necessary and do not fail, on the galleries or top deck, to keep a hand on the rail. It’s a few minutes after two o’clock. All hands stand by their stations for the signal and we’ll be off.”
Just as Alan and Roy sprang up the store room ladder to reach the pilot house and Bob and Buck were entering the engine room, an employee rushed from Mr. Atkinson’s office. ”

“ For the use of the pilot he had furnished full directions covering the trip between Ipswich and Fogo Island, off the east coast of Newfoundland, and for the ocean voyage proper, a North Atlantic Pilot Chart plotted on rhumb lines, and a table of true and magnetic courses with latitude and longitude indicated. ”

“ I had first been the intention to proceed due from San Francisco, then wing toward the east where the coast of Peru showed. This plan was opposed by the lieutenant, for the reason that an airship far out on the Pacific ocean, directly in the steamship route, would be likely to attract attention sailing over the southwestern states and Central America. Daring aviators now venture in all directions and at all altitudes above the solid earth, but they are still cautious about proceeding far out over the merciless waters of the oceans which rim the continent of North America. ”

“ Of course, she is interested in the progress of aviation. Everybody who flies has this interest at heart—but the love of adventure is uppermost in her mind when she makes her record flights.
“It was that that sent her across the Atlantic, through storms and sleet and fog, with no thought of turning back, in spite of decided defects in her motor that threatened to land her in the middle of the ocean and send her to certain death. ”

“ There is magic in salt water which transmogrifies all things it touches. The aeroplane with its cubist outline undergoes a sea change on reaching the coast and becomes a flying-boat, a thing of beauty, a Viking dragon ship, a shape born of the sea and air with pleasant and easy lines, and in the sun, the dull war-paint stripped from the natural mahogany, a flashing golden craft of enchantment. ”

“ But luck was now on one side and then on the other, and the spirits of the passengers rose and fell accordingly, now to boisterously triumphant assurance, and then to gloomy wrath and even despondency. The two boats were evidently so well matched in quality and handled with skill and boldness so equal, that nobody could foretell the result of the race. The “Flying Cloud” people could not refrain from respecting the “Ocean Wave” very much. ”

“ Save for the swash of divided waves, the drone of the engine, the muffled panting of the exhaust, and an occasional grunt from the pilot, lazy silence reigned aboard and about the launch. Shaded by the heavy top and fanned by the lusty wind, the voyagers rode in quiescent comfort. Nowhere in all the broad vista beyond them rose any sail, any steamer-smoke, or even the low-riding dots betokening men in a canoe. All the river seemed their own. Yet all four watched constantly ahead—the girl as if awaiting the appearance of some destination, the men as if long habituated to wary vigilance. ”

“ There were new fields to conquer. How about flying the Atlantic? He’d always wanted to fly the Atlantic. Anything that was all adventure appealed to him. So when they hoisted anchor at Spitzbergen after the flight across the Pole Byrd said to his companion Bennett, ‘Now we can fly the Atlantic.’
“The plan to fly the ocean had its origin in the same motives that the North Pole flight had. Byrd wanted to make America aviation conscious; and he wanted to make American aviators conscious of the benefits of careful planning. ”

“ Our seaplane swung around and around like a bird about to settle, and, as the seagulls do, alighted on the waters against the wind. With remarkable skill and patience the pilot carefully steered the machine until she faced the ways on which waited a throng of air-station officers and waders. Soon we were properly placed, and a dozen men clad in waterproof clothes splashed forward into the water, and caught the floats of the seaplane's wings. As the engine had been stopped before we landed, I got the first chance to speak to my pilot. ”

“ Within an hour or two the sky would almost certainly be overcast. For the moment it was fine, however, and I enjoyed the fresh clarity of the air as we walked down the pier together. At its extremity, on the leeward side of the steamer landing-stage, the seaplane rode the running waves like a great bird that had alighted with outspread wings, the water splashing and sucking against her floats as she jerked and slackened on her mooring-ropes. ”

“ As my air-ship ploughed ahead the wind struck my face and fluttered my coat, as on the deck of a transatlantic liner, though in other respects it will be more accurate to liken aerial to river navigation with a steamboat. It is not like sail navigation, and all talk about "tacking" is meaningless. If there is any wind at all it is in a given direction, so that the analogy with a river current is complete. When there is no wind at all we may liken it to the navigation of a smooth lake or pond. ”

“ The pilot station in weather like this was only a mile or two to the westward of the islets; and presently, as we approached the spot, the boat we were going to relieve swam into our view suddenly, on her way home, cutting black and sinister into the wake of the moon under a sable wing, while to them our sail must have been a vision of white and dazzling radiance. Without altering the course a hair's breadth we slipped by each other within an oar's length. A drawling, sardonic hail came out of her. Instantly, as if by magic, our dozing pilots got on their feet in a body. ”

“ Yet another is that should the navigator of an aëroplane make an important error in calculation while flying over the ocean in fog or mist, an enforced descent into the water, after the limited quantity of fuel has been expended over a wrong course, is more than possible.
In the present condition of practical aëronautics, the only heavier-than-air craft likely to be suitable for flying the Atlantic are the large flying boats now being built by various aircraft companies ”

“ One pilot, however, is always on the lookout for sails, and a landsman is compelled to marvel at the certainty with which these ocean scouts discharge the task of sighting vessels, for often they are able to tell the name of a steamship before unaccustomed eyes can discern aught but a waste of waters and a wide expanse of sky. ”

“ But now fortune favored us again. The boats were still side by side, doing their utmost with fearful energy. But they had to make a curve in order to swing to the landing place, and the “Flying Cloud”—was it owing to good luck or to the foresight of the captain?—had the advantage of the inside. Running full speed as long as it was possible, and stopping the engine only when it was absolutely necessary, the “Flying Cloud” touched the dock with a crash and had the lines fastened and the gangplanks thrown out with the utmost rapidity, while the “Ocean Wave” was just coming in. ”

“ I know that what one feels most distressingly at sea is not so much the movement as that momentary hesitation just before the boat pitches, followed by the malicious dipping or mounting, which never comes quite the same, and the shock at top and bottom. All this is powerfully aided by the smells of the paint, varnish, tar, mingled with the odours of the kitchen, the heat of the boilers, and the stench of the smoke and the hold.
In the air-ship there is no smell—all is pure and clean—and the pitching itself has none of the shocks and hesitations of the boat at sea. ”

“ Now again the wind was with me, stronger than it had been on the preceding flight down the coast. Yet it was easy steering, and I remarked with pleasure that going thus with the wind the pitching or tangage of the air-ship was much less. Though going fast with my propeller, and aided by the wind behind me, I felt no more motion, indeed even less, than before.
For the rest, how different were my sensations from those of the spherical balloonist! It is true that he sees the earth flying backward beneath him at tremendous speed. But he knows that he is powerless. ”

“ The air bumps here were terrific, tossing them about, and the Skipper was obliged to keep his eye constantly on the bank and climb indicator in order to keep the plane on anything resembling an even keel. As they had entered the clouds the wind had been nearly dead astern, and here in the murky darkness they were compelled to trust solely to their instruments for navigation. The wind caught them up in fierce eddies, and swirls of gray clouds sucked up past them. Flashes of lightning darted here and there. The plane seemed to have no more stability than a kite. ”