First Robot Plane of the 1930's
News Wire Photo
Plane Here From Coast In 13 Hours, Cutting 5 Hours Off Passenger Record
BRINGS 12 THROUGH STORM
Trip Demonstrates The Service Halted By Canceling Of Contracts,
Says Rickenbacker.
Special to the New York Times
Newark, New Jersey, February 19, 1934
Breaking by five hours all records for passenger airplanes, a Douglas monoplane of Transcontinental and Western Air landed here this afternoon, 13 hours 4 minutes 20 seconds out of Los Angeles. The City of Los Angeles brought the last load of transcontinental air mail to be flown before the army takes over the mails under the President's order canceling all airline contracts.
The silvery, all-metal liner, carrying twelve, and part of the way fourteen persons, several hundred pounds of mail, air express and baggage, averaged 203 miles an hour, elapsed time, from coast to coast. It made stops at Albuquerque, N.M., Kansas City, Mo., and Columbus, Ohio. The best previous time, in a racing plane, was 10 hours, 5 1/2 minutes. The best previous transport time, with passengers, was 18 hours 13 minutes.
Rode Over Snow Storms.
The plane was not helped by favoring winds. For the most part there were cross winds. This conveyed by Captain Edward V. Rickenbacker, who was in charge of the flight for the airline. Over the Coast ranges, the Rockies and the great plains the weather was clear. At Columbus, however, it was snowing and gusty snow storms marked the course thence over the Alleghenies all the way to Camden. The plane rode above the storm at 18,500 feet. As it neared Newark it descended and followed the radio beam through a dull sky to the airport. It landed at 20 seconds after 1 P.M.
Jack Frye, vice-president of TWA in charge of operations, was at the controls of the plane when it took off under a starry sky at Grand Central Airport, Glendale, Calif., at 11:56 P.M. Eastern Standard Time. He flew it to Columbus, where D.W. Tomlinson, assistant to President Richard W. Robbins and chief test pilot on the line, took over. In the cockpit and occasionally taking over the controls were Captain Rickenbacker, H. Gay Andrews, veteran pilot; L. G. Fritz and Paul Richter, eastern and western divisional superintendents, and W.A. Hamilton, maintenance superintendent.
For more than 90 percent of the trip, Rickenbacker and Tomlinson said, the Sperry automatic pilot, which has been specified for all the forty-one planes of this type which the line has ordered, had command of aileron, stabilizer and rudder.
The passengers, in addition to the air line officials and pilots, were Edward Jones of The Associated Press, George Daws of the Scripps-Howard newspapers, David Sentner of the International News Service, Kent Curtis of the Universal News Service and two camera Men.
Found Flight Comfortable.
All agreed that the flight represented the acme of plane comfort. They had sipped at oxygen mouthpieces, they said, when the plane mounted to more than 18,000 feet. But, they added, this was more or less a precautionary measure as no one had been made uncomfortable by the altitude. Although at this point the temperature outside the ship was 22 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, the heating system functioned perfectly and it was an even 70 degrees within.
The plane is designed for long hops at high altitude. The engines are so supercharged as to give their maximum efficiency at about 14,000 feet. Fuel capacity makes hops of 1,000 miles mostly possible.
Captain Rickenbacker declared that the flight demonstrated what the air transport lines would have been able to furnish in the way of time-saving travel this year, had not their mail contracts been canceled. Now, he said, until some solution is found, abbreviated schedules will have to be the rule.
The flight also furnished a demonstration of the accuracy of a new type of weather forecasting, officials of the air line said. Through the cooperation of the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the line has perfected a meteorological forecasting service of its own. By means of the so called "polar front" or air mass method of forecasting, by which the movements and relationships of great masses of air in considerable altitudes are studied, very accurate predictions have become possible, it is said.
By the use of this system of a vertical weather map, W.H. Clover, chief meteorologist for the company, was able from New York yesterday morning to advise the pilots of the transcontinental plane that they would have unlimited ceiling and visibility on the western leg of the journey, a ceiling of 1,800 feet at Columbus, snow between that point and Newark, and a broken cloud ceiling of about 7,000 feet at this port. This prediction checked exactly with the flight itself.
The X designates Experimental, the 1st and only plane of it's type
Also the plane bore the number 300, the Douglas Commercial designation
'Mystery' Craft Here From Los Angeles in 11 Hours 5 Minutes, Record For Transports.
Pilot Seldom In Charge
Takes Controls Only for Three Short Periods During the 2,400-mile Flight
The New York Times
May 5, 1935
A TWA "mystery" plane roared into Floyd Bennett Field last evening with a new transcontinental flight record for transport planes, having crossed the continent non-stop from Los Angeles in 11 hours and 5 minutes with a robot at the controls virtually all the way.
The plane left Burbank Airport outside of Los Angeles at 8:54 A.M., Eastern daylight-saving time yesterday, and arrived over Bennett Field at 7:59:45 P.M.
Aboard the plane were D.W. Tomlinson, assistant to Jack Frye, president of the airline; Harold Snead an expert on radio beam flying, and Peter Redpath, navigation engineer. With their robot pilot, they had lowered by 28 1/2 minutes and 16 seconds set Feb. 21 by Leland L. Andrews.
Pilot Takes a Rest
Tomlinson had the controls for only three short intervals on the 2,400-mile flight. He had piloted the ship over the San Bernardino Range after taking it off from the Burbank Airport. Once over that range and with the ship at an altitude of about 16,000 feet, he turned it over to the gyro-pilot, after setting a Great Circle course with radio directional beams.
Reaching the Continental Divide at Durango, Col., the plane encountered a snowstorm. With ice forming on the ship and on the constant-speed propeller, Tomlinson again took over the controls and flew southward off the course for about forty miles through the Grand Canyon, dodging around the storm.
Bringing it back to the course, Tomlinson again gave the ship to the robot pilot. He did not touch the controls again until the ship was within sixty miles of Floyd Bennett Field, when he took charge once more, in order to "get the feel" of the plane before bringing it to a landing here.
With the radio directional beam guiding the plane's course and the robot pilot keeping the ship on an even keel, the three men in the ship enjoyed a hearty meal as the plane flew at speeds of well over 200 miles an hour.
The detour caused by the snow storm near the Continental Divide cost the ship about eighteen minutes of flying time, Tomlinson said last night. In flying through the Grand Canyon, he added, "we cleared the ridges by only 400 or 500 feet."
Having dodged the snow storm and returned to their original course, they encountered a dust storm in the Pueblo Valley, but this offered no obstacles. The ship climbed to 15,000 feet, far above the storm, and, with the gyro-pilot in control, flew for about 1,000 miles above the dust. The ground was not visible at any point along that 1,000-mile stretch, but the men in the ship, being in constant touch with radio stations on the ground, knew just where they were.
The ship emerged from the dust storm at Kirksville, Kan. Upon reaching the Mississippi River, Tomlinson related, the plane met "very fine weather and a strong tail wind," which prevailed the rest of the way to New York.
The pilot said the greatest cruising speed, 262 miles an hour, was reached over the Alleghany Mountains. The lowest speed was about 185 miles an hour for a short while, during which ice had begun to form on the plane, before it passed over Durango, Col. All the way across the country, Tomlinson said, the two motors functioned perfectly.
About 1,000 spectators were at the field when the plane landed here, and cheers and the sounding of automobile sirens greeted the announcement that a new record had been set.
Among those who offered their congratulations to the men aboard where officials of the air line, Deputy Dock Commissioner F. William Zalcer, Lieutenant Samuel Levy, acting manager of Floyd Bennett Field, and John Heinmuller of the National Aeronautic Association, the official timer.
The plane carried 1,300 gallons of gasoline in six special tanks when it left Burbank Airport. Its total weight, which included 150 pounds of mail, was 21,000 pounds at the take-off. There were 300 gallons of gasoline in the tanks when the ship landed here.
Equipped as a flying laboratory, the plane has been known as a "mystery ship" because of the secrecy surrounding the recent flights from the California coast out over the Pacific with Captain Albert F. Hegenberger, army blind-flying expert, and Eugene L. Vidal, director of the Air Commerce Board. These flights were made to test the efficiency of over-water flying with a radio compass, or homing device that was tried out by the Bureau of Air Commerce, to which the plane was then under charter.
Yesterday's flight was aimed primarily at flying a great circle course with the aid of the gyro-pilot. Before the Douglas plane arrived here officials of the airline said that the non-stop flight from California was not intended as an attempt to establish a new transcontinental record.
'Mystery' DC-1 Will Fly New York-Washington-Norfolk Triangle for Speed Marks.
AMERICAN AIR LEAD IS AIM
Tomlinson to Pilot Craft in Flights Planned in Response to Plea by Senator McAdoo
Washington D.C, May 6, 1935
Transcontinental and Western Air, Inc., announced tonight that it would attempt to establish eight new world speed records and that in doing so would use the DC-1 Douglas robot "mystery" plane, which recently set a new transcontinental record of 11 hours 5 minutes and 45 seconds from Los Angeles to New York.
D.W. Tomlinson, who piloted the DC-1 on its record flight across the continent, will be at the controls in the new speed flights, which will be over an official triangular course between New York, Washington and Norfolk.
The decision of Transcontinental and Western Air to attempt the new records, all of them now held by foreign countries, was in response to the appeal of Senator William G. McAdoo, is to capture the records now held overseas. Other American lines, it was announced are also making plans for new record flights
Pay Loads to Be Carried.
Pay loads of 2,200 pounds are to be carried a distance of 3,100 miles, in the record attempts. For the first time in the history of speed flights for international records Mr. Tomlinson will fly the DC-1 at an altitude of 14,000 feet. The flights will be recorded by the new theodolyte method of control.
This device enables the timers to clock the plane as it turns each pylon. as the pilot approaches each turning point he will establish radio contact with the pylon observers, and the plane will then be picked up by the theodolyte and followed by this instrument during the course of its turn. To establish a permanent record, it is planned to photograph the recording scale of the theodolyte with a 16 mm. camera and a synchronized stop watch will be placed in the field of the camera to indicate the time of the turn.
Senator McAdoo, speaking over a Columbia network tonight of the need from a commercial as well as a national defense standpoint of an American air service that will give to the United States the leadership of the air, referred to the forthcoming speed record flights.
America Now a 'Poor Second.'
"At present," he said, "the United States is a poor second in the number of air records held by the countries of the world. We want these records because we want to maintain American leadership in the development and progress of aviation.
"I was gratified to receive a telegram from Jack Frye, president of the Transcontinental and Western Air line, assuring me that his company will immediately undertake to restore eight world records to the United States. The attempt will be made within the next two weeks, using the first Douglas transport built for his company, the same transport which recently established a new flight record from Los Angeles to New York. I hope that other companies and individual fliers will engage in this effort in the true spirit of sportsmanship and achievement.
"I believe that the United States can hold the primacy in aviation if we pursue a liberal governmental policy with respect to the extension of international lines and if we educate our people to the benefits of this almost limitless field of exploration and healthful adventure.
Defense Factor Is Stressed.
"You may ask why it is important to develop these air lines--domestic as well as international. The answer is the same as that which would be given if you asked, "Why did we substitute the railroad for the pony express? Why did we drive the ox-cart from our highways and replace it with the automobile? In each case we did it for the simple reason that improved methods of transportation knitted the country more closely together and made it possible to move swiftly between all sections the food supplies and products needed for the life of our people and for the prompt transportation of passengers, mail and express matter. These agencies under modern civilization are essential to the comfort and progress of every people.
"Air transportation is in its infancy. Its perfection will mean a vast economic gain, while at the same time it will provide the trained reserve personnel and efficient industrial organization to meet any problem of national defense which may confront us in the future.
"We must encourage the study of aviation, the practice of aviation, and gratify the eager imagination and desire of the young people of our country to engage in this new and marvelous field for thrilling achievement. We should not let a great discovery of such actual and potential value to mankind go unused, when its full development will play an immensely important part in the restoration of prosperity and economic comfort."
Although the DC-1 is my main interest, I wanted to include this link for Jack's surfers,
very interesting information on the DC-5!
Transcontinental and Western Air
Historical Webpage
Sedona Legend Helen Frye!