The Pole-Flyers

It was a week of great activity among people who are planning to fly over the top of the world.

Wilkins. One morning the big monoplane Alaskan was trundled out of her shed at Fairbanks, Alaska, and placed on an inclined runway. Since her smash into a wire fence three weeks ago, repairs had been swiftly made on her propeller, fuselage and landing gear. Tuned to a new perfection, loaded with 3,000 lb. of freight* and 290 gallons of extra gasoline, she responded with a twelve-cylinder roar to Pilot Carl B. Eielson's cry for "Contact!" Ice on the runway had melted, leaving about a foot of slush which the Alaskan churned high in the air as she shot forward. Lifting slowly but easily, she circled to a height of 1,000 feet over the landing field, then squared off north-by-west for Point Barrow, northernmost settlement on this continent, where her commander, Captain George Hubert Wilkins, wished to deposit supplies before asking her to carry him over the Arctic seas. About noon, Fairbanks reported a radio from Captain Wilkins saying he had sighted Point Barrow. That meant that the Alaskan was soaring over the great triangular tundra, about the size of Texas, north of the Endicott Mountains. This report was later denied by Major Lanphier, Wilkins' second-in-command, and not for three days was the Alaskan's safe landing at its destination definitely known.

At Point Barrow, expectant natives had been burning signal fires for days. A landing field had been marked off to receive the Alaskan.

Byrd. After discussing his plans with President Coolidge at the White House and receiving Godspeed; after taking his leave of Secretary of the Navy Wilbur; after testing and christening and testing again his triple-engined Fokker monoplane, the Josephine Ford (in honor of a 3-year-old daughter of a financial backer, Edsel Ford); after laying in 200 smoke bombs and a supply of potassium permanganate (purple when moistened) to be used as targets for his drift-indicator (compass) when flying over snowfields; after discussing landing-skis with a Canadian expert and buying a second extra set, larger than any, for the Josephine, as well as a small set for her tail; after explaining into a microphone for the radio public how he intends to visit the North Pole by flying in 400-mile stages from Spitzbergen with an intermediate base on Cape Morris Jessup. Greenland, taking with him only one flight companion, Chief Petty Officer Floyd Bennett, but having at call by radio in Kings Bay a reserve plane (Curtiss Oriole) manned by fellow service flyers; after reading a great many flattering, tender, hopeful, encouraging farewell messages (doubtless including one from his brother, Governor Harry F. Byrd of Virginia, "youngest U. S. governor, 38")--after all was in readiness, Lieutenant Commander Richard E. ("Dickie") Byrd journeyed to the Brooklyn Navy Yard and boarded the good ship Chantier. There he saw to it that the Josephine was properly stowed below decks in a dismantled condition, showed his backers and friends over the craft on an inspection tour, and with 45 companions waved goodby as the Chantier slipped out of dock. Going down the bay, a sleek yacht escorted the Chantier with her owner, Vincent Astor, aboard, and other Byrd-backers, including John D. Rockefeller Jr., Edsel Ford, F. Trubee Davison, Rear Admiral Charles P. Plunkett. Tromso, Norway, was to be the Chantier's first port of call, where she will pick up an ice-skipper to take her to Kings Bay, Spitzbergen.

Amundsen. Pomp, fanfares, Premier Mussolini, foreign military attaches and "all the Norwegians in Rome" attended the formal translation of the semirigid Italian dirigible Enone into the Norge, in its hangar at the Ciampino Airdrome at Rome. The distinguished company gathered about the air leviathan's cabin while Mrs. Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen, wife of the ship's second-in-command, performed the orthodox rite with a bottle of bubbling wine, and Dr. Rolf Thormessen stood by to receive the vessel in the name of the Aero Club of Norway. A silk flag from King Haakon and Queen Maud was run aloft at the bag's stern. Explorers Roald Amundsen and Lincoln Ellsworth entrained next day for Oslo, Norway, leaving Lieutenant Riiser-Larsen and the Norge's designer, Colonel Nobile, to conduct the Norge to Spitzbergen as soon as weather favored. There the chiefs will join her for the great adventure of flying over uncharted white wastes to Nome, Alaska. The base ship Hobby reached Spitzbergen a fortnight ago laden with materials for the Norge's northern bivouac and mooring mast.

*In this load, or in subsequent ones, were 400 letters which Captain Wilkins contracted to carry over the Pole and mail in Spitzbergen, for $10 a letter. A New Jersey philatelist hopes to sell them to his customers for $12.50 each. Similarly. Lieutenant Commander Byrd is taking U. S. flags on his trip for societies wishing to possess flags that have been to the North Pole.