On Top

Swain to Pezzi to Adam is not a baseball double play, but the briefest way of describing a contest which has lately raged in the substratosphere between England and Italy. Last autumn England's Squadron Leader F. D. R. Swain set a new world airplane altitude record of 49,944 ft. in a Bristol monoplane (TIME, Oct. 12). Two months ago Italy's Colonel Mario Pezzi boosted the record to 51,361 ft. in a Caproni biplane (TIME, May 17). Last week England's Lieutenant M. J. Adam flew Pilot Swain's Bristol to 53,937 ft. This rivalry would have no more importance than an urchin's game of "whole-hand-or-none" on a baseball bat to see who shall be first up, were it not for the fact that always so far in aviation's brief history today's altitude record has become tomorrow's airway. Fifteen years ago world's altitude record was under 37,000 ft. In the last three years several groups of commercial airmen have spent many an hour at this height preparing the way for passenger transports. Last week when the first such transport underwent successful high-flight tests, it became apparent that commercial flying in the substratosphere is soon to be a commonplace. Until about 1930 transports flew by "contact"--i. e., maintaining visual contact with the ground. With development of beams and other radio navigational aids, airliners ventured to fly blind for long stretches at 10,000 ft. (world record in 1911) in the manner which is now standard the world over. Bold spirits thereupon visualized flying twice or thrice as high to escape bad weather, take advantage of reduced air resistance, trade winds. First man to attempt what many called a ridiculous stunt was the late great Wiley Post. Wearing a cumbersome rubber oxygen suit, Post made three flights in the substratosphere in his famed globe-girdling Winnie Mae, the longest from Los Angeles to Cleveland in March 1935. Each time he risked his life, and mechanical difficulties prevented complete success, but he did lift his plane's speed from 150 to 340 m.p.h. and he found no weather hazards at 35,000 ft. These results convinced Transcontinental & Western Air, which had cooperated in the tests, that further research was worthwhile.

TWA set aside a Northrop Gamma for experiments, last year made a big splash of headlines by coining the word "over-weather." Theory was that at 35,000 ft. it was always clear, always calm, all winds were steady. That this was not entirely the case was presently proved by TWA's crack Test-Pilot Daniel W. ("Tommy") Tomlinson. Burly and devil-may-care, he learned his flying in the Navy's celebrated acrobatic-team of Sea Hawks, of whom he is the sole survivor. Known as "Indian Joe" to the fleet, Tomlinson would stunt at night with lights out so officers could not see him. Eventually his gallivanting got him cashiered from the service and he joined TWA as assistant to President Jack Frye, himself a top-notch flyer. Today Tomlinson holds several world records, has spent more time above 35,000 ft. than any other man, is regarded so highly as a flyer that insurance companies have been known to cut their premiums 50% on a new plane if he is to test-fly it. Last winter Tomlinson made constant trips to the substratosphere in the single-motored Gamma. Devil-may-care as ever, he spurned any such oxygen suit as Wiley Post wore, merely bundled up warmly, stuck an oxygen tube in his mouth. Says he: "I don't know what it may do to me eventually. Doctors say it may kill me, but I reckon not. I have to build up to each flight by drinking lots of milk and sleeping long hours and when I get down I have bloody noses and bad attacks of boils for a week or so. But they go 'way."

Pilot Tomlinson's most risky and most important substratosphere flight took place last January. Ordered to bring his Gamma to Manhattan for the Aviation Show, he and his assistant, Engineer James Heistand, deliberately took off from Kansas City in the worst possible weather, climbed to 36,000 ft. where they were still not on top of the bad weather. Nor could Tommy reach the top, thus exploding the "overweather" theory for that level at any rate. Flying in sleet without sighting land for seven hours, he finally reached the coast, began to "mush" down through for a landing. His aerial was iced and he could not get a fix on the beam at Newark where the ceiling was very low and where TWA officials were biting their nails. So he nonchalantly flew 200 miles out to sea in his land plane to make a second approach. Back over Newark, he still could not get down and gas was nearly gone. Heading toward Princeton, he spotted the first hole in the clouds since Kansas City, dropped through it just as his engine conked out. The plane nosed over in the forced landing, but damage was negligible and the research gains were tremendous. After the Aviation Show the "overweather" plane retired for an overhaul. Last week, with a radical new fuel injection system made by Eclipse Corp. that eliminates the carburetor, it was given its first tests by President Frye in person preparatory to more visits to the substratosphere.

What TWA has learned is being used in the Boeing plant in Seattle where six four-motored TWA transports are now being built (TIME, March 1). These will have supercharged cabins* to maintain normal air for crew and passengers, will fly at around 30,000 ft., are scheduled for service next year. Pan American Airways has two similar ships abuilding minus the super-chargers, which will be installed if TWA's are successful. The problem is a hard one, for the fuselage must be able to withstand the tremendous difference in pressure between the thin air outside and the supercharged air within. Last week the roof of Lieutenant Adam's cabin split with a resounding crack due to pressure strain as he reached his world record height. No such trouble was experienced, however, last week when the world's first supercharged-cabin plane flew from Burbank, Calif, to Mexico and back at 28,000 ft. The plane was a special Lockheed Electra, built in great secrecy for the U. S. Army, which looks to the substratosphere to take bombers out of range of guns and enemy planes without supercharged cabins.

TWA is not the only line to carry on high-flying research. United sent Dr. Edmund Henry Padden aloft with four human "guinea pigs" who tried various mental tests with and without oxygen. Without oxygen at 17,000 ft. none of the four obtained the same answer to simple problems, all answers were wrong and reactions were slow. Given oxygen, the four reverted to normal. When TWA and American Airlines pilots come down for a ticklish landing after long hours at 10,000 ft., they take sips of oxygen from tubes. Tasteless, it clears their fatigued minds, gives them a sudden freshness. Pan American-Grace offers passengers the same facilities in its transandean flights in South America at heights of 15,000 ft.

Just what are the effects of frequent insufficiency of oxygen are still largely unknown. Pilots often have sinus and ear trouble from changes in air pressure. Many have complained of a tendency for teeth to fall out after years of flying. Passengers making only occasional hops apparently need fear no such woes at present normal levels (5,000-12,000 ft.) though they may notice higher heartbeat, heartier appetites, lassitude (passengers who play ping-pong in Pan American's Pacific Clippers find they tire faster than usual). Three weeks ago Dr. Allan L. Barach of New York sounded off to the American Medical Association, calling it dangerous for those with angina pectoris to fly at 15,000 ft. without extra oxygen. This is a matter of little moment since future planes will be supercharged, and airline officials point out that passenger deaths from natural causes are no greater on planes than on other transport means. In 286,000,000 passenger-miles, TWA has had only one passenger die in the air--an 80-year-old man who had a preliminary heart attack on the way to the airport.

*Supercharged means charged with extra oxygen. This can be done 1) by releasing oxygen from pressure tanks or 2) by compressing thin air taken in from outside. The latter method is being built into TWA's ships.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.