Evening Star Newspaper, December 10, 1930, Page 5

THE EVENING,K STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1930. PILOT SAVES 18 AS GEAR BREAKS Frank Jerdone Lands Giant Transport Safely at At- lanta Field. (Continued From First Page.) fore with smashed landing gear, it 15‘ the first time so large a plane or a | Ei:sne with so many passengers aboard | been brought down under the cir- cumstances. Col. Charles A. Lindbergh | made a similar landing in Mexico with his wife, then Miss Anne MOorTow, | aboard, but in that case the plane | turned over, though it was not nearly | 80 large or heavily loaded as the plane flown by Jerdone. Plane Filled With Notables. The plane, filled with aviation | notables, was one of several flown to | Atlanta yesterday in preparation for the | opening of air passenger service today | tween Atlanta and New York, by way | of the National Capital. Most of the | party aboard flew down from New York in the plane Monday. The writer | joined the party yesterday when the | plane left Washington—Hoover ~Air- port—bound for Atlanta. With Jerdone as co-pilot was Doug Davis, . pilot of the famous origin, S” plane in which he | won_the speed event in the National Air Races d last year. Davis is known as the finest racing and acrobatic pilots in the country and as a skilled transport pilot. ‘The trip from the National Capital to Greensboro, N. C,, where a stop was made for luncheon, was uneventful. After lunch the plane continued on to Spartansburg. . C., where a brief stop was made. In landing the plane rolled over a small hummock in the landing field, jarring the landing gear heavily. Examination revealed no apparent dam- age, however, and the plane took off at 3:21 pm. for Atlanta Ship Took Off Easily. The big ship, with full passenger load aboard, took off easily and headed into the southwest along the line of the Appalachian Mountains for At- lanta, more than an hour and & half distant in fiying time. A few miles out of Spartanburg, the writer, who was sitting in the foremost passenger seat on the right side, the only seat in the plane which commanded a view of the Tight landing wheel, was startled by the sight of the great wheel dangling | from its tow inboard strut. The vertical strut composing the shock absorbing medium. nad snapped at the ball-and-socket joint connecting it with the axle and the entire wheel assembly had dropped more than a foot out of place, the end of the strut resting against the tire. Realizing that an attempt to land the plane with the pilot in ignorange of | the damage almost certainly Yould, result disastrously, 1 opened the door into the pilot’s compartment in the nose of the plane, touch=d the shoulder of Davis, who was sitting in the co- | pilot's seat on the right side and said | “You had better look st the oleo strut | on_the right wheel.” Davis rose out of his seat and locked down out of the window. Without a change of expression he said quite | will w calmly “Don’t say anything to any of the passengers yet. There’s no need of causing them unnecessary worry.” Davis then turn to_Jerdone and told him of the trouble. Jerdone turned over the controls to Davis and he and a Curtiss Wright mechanic named Handlon, in charge of the two big 625- horsepower engines on the plane, crosscd the pilot's compartment and also looked at the damaged wheel. As calmly as though thev were dis- cussing what they would have for sup- per, the three put their heads together to decids the best method for bringing the plane down at Atlanta without a bad smash. After talking it over they lighted cigarettes and went on about the business of flying the plane, doing nothing which might alarm the passen- gers in the least. Handlon came out of the forward compartment and sat down beside me. “I think we may be able to get down | all right,” he said. “There's a rhan(‘c; that the broken strut may slide into | place and hold long enough for us to get in safely. If it doesn’t, we probably | out the landing gear and the lower wing, but I believe they will take up enough of the shock so we won't | get hurt.” One of the other passengers came up | to ask the name of a town we were | passing cver. “I'm sorry I don't know Handlon said, “but I'll find out for you He went back to the nose of the shirl.A looked at the strip map Davis was| using to check his course and replied | that it was Jefferson, Ga., and that the | plane was flying at an altitude of 1875 feet. His manner indicated that he had | Washington, was reading a newspaper and yawning comfortably. I envied him his peace of mind. Another passenger was fooling with & ventilator tube, which emitted a peculiar sound when turned at a certain angle to the wind. Thomas A. Morgan, & vice presi- dent of the Transcontinental Air Trans- port, dropped into the seat beside me and we chatted about this and that for a while, while Atlanta and our land- ing drew closer and closer. Jerdone came out of his compartment and wal back through the cabin, smiling down as he passed. In a few moments he came back and r<turned to the controls. “Cas: Jones, one of the Nation's foremost aviation pioneers, who staged a sensational come-back in air racing at Chicago last September, and who is one of the big air transport cxecutives, came up and looked down at the strut with a very grave face. So did Ralph 8. Westing, Jovial Eas ern Air Transport executive. Westing refused to look bothered. Hinshaw came over and had a look. He sat dow “I think we will get down all right,” Hinshaw said. “I have through things that looked worse t that,” He went on t and with apparent enjoyment some of his experiences. Atlanta now was quite close. ~Stone Mountain, with its rudi- mentary monumental sculptur-s, slipped by below. Tell Them Field May Be Rough. n 1 stuck my head up into the pilots | “office” and asked Davis if he dump the gasoline in the tanks. said he could, but that there was not could gone | relate caimly | He | not a care in the world. He smiled and | Much left. I asked if he wanted the returned to the pilot's compartment. Thought of Crash Persists. Despite the ease of manner and ap- parent_confidence of the three mem- | bers of the crew my mind turned in- voluntarily to thoughts of crashes and my glances returned time and again to the damaged landing gear with the | thought that maybe it was only a bad dream and I would wake up and find everything all right, but each time the wheecl was down and when the plane hit a _bump or rough spot in the air the wheel would jerk against the broken strut. “Well, maybe it's not so bad after all,” I thought. ‘Perhaps when we land, especially since Jerdone will put it down on the good wheel, the trut will hold in place. But suppose that wheel drops clear away from the strut when we hit one of these bumps. What then? That would be mad. Or suppose it goes up on its nose? That will mean almost cer- tain death for those two pilots, out ahead of the wings and engines. Or, worst of all, suppose we should catch fire? Pi.bably none of us would get out.” After a little, however, my mind be- came reconciled to the fact that there was nothing I could do about it, that the matter was in the hands of the two pilots up front, that they were among the best in the business and that my worrying would do no good. I con- sidered that after all I had flown more than 10,000 miles in all kinds of planes without a mishap of any kind and that perhaps it might be a good experience to go through a little crack-up. I even became a little curious as to just what would happen and began to wish we were closer to Atlanta and there would not be so long a period of suspense. Passengers Undisturbed. Once in a while Handlon or Jerdone | or Davis would look back through the window in the wall separating them from the passenger cabin as if to ask “well, how do you feel about it now? And T would smile back as cheerfully | as possible. Across the aisle Hainer Hinshaw, of f the aviation corporation welght shifted back into the tail of the plane as much as possible and he said that he did, but o be careful not to alarm the woman passengers, MTrs, Morgan, Mrs. Westing and Mrs. Carl | Byoir of New York. | “Get them to fasten their safety belts | and tell them the field at Atlanta may be a little rough,” he said, | which he passed arcund. Every | one took a piece. Most of the man passengers by now knew something was amiss. Westl suggested that the “heavy weights” go toward the |take seats and put on safety belts. Casey [ Jones came up to me and suggested | that T move back a seat, as I was close | to the arc of the propeller, which might | cut through the fuselage if we nosed up. We were gliding down for our land |ing at Candler field. Jones and Mor- | gan went into the rear compartment Jones made certain all safety belts were fastened. Morgan put on his overcoat, though it was quite warm. Scme one | asked if he were using it for padding and he smiled. Most of the men put | on their hats. All the rear seats were | filled so Jones and Morgan stretched | out flat on the floor and braced them- selves against the seats. Handlong, with no other seat available, the three front seats in the propeller arcs being left vacant, sat on a lounge with his back in a corner and braced himself against a window frame. I wrote on a page of notes almost automatically, “Oleo strut broken, we are going to crack-up at Atlanta” I stuffed the notes in my pocket snd took off my glasses, recalling that it was customary | to do so when rough landings impended. | Jerdone looked back through his win. | dow to see that sve were all prepared |and went on down over the boundary * | lights. Jerdone Calmly Lands. With the crucial moment at hand Jerdone calmly and_ skillfully mushed the plane down to the ground at al- most stalling speed, cutting down every possible mile of forward speed. At the last instant he lifted the right wing and made a magnificent landing on the one good wheel and the tall wheel, the stationed in ' dangling wheel bouncing and pounding ! th Westing came forward with a box of | tail, | ROSE QUEE D HER COURT | | Mary Lou Waddell (seated) will reign over the Tournament of Roses when | | the Alabama University and Washington State foot ball teams meet in the | | Rose Bowl, at Pasadena, Calif., January 1. Alice Ashley (left), Myrna Wilson (cents d Fannie Arnold are her ladies-in-waiting. —A. P. Photo. | along. For an instant it looked as though he was going to get away en-|was an Army Conder B-2 bombard- tirely clear. As the plane slowed down, | ment plane, the military counterpart however, the right wing dropped and |of Jerdone’s plane, which smashed a the heavy engine crunched down on|landing gear taking off. Several en- ith s damaged landing gear. That the landing wheel, which instantly |listed men aboard took to their para- | locked. ‘The ‘huge plane spun_around | chutes and the pilot, after ambulances a complete turn on its wing tip, lurched, | and fire apparatus had gathered, put and came to a stop. There was a sigh | the ship down, e, passengers unfastened their safety | out unhurt. the belfs, collected thelr wraps and filed " ; out. ~ Jerdone and Davis moved not an‘";”‘mf,;;.i“g;';gfiflg? bl inch in their seats for a long moment | coad“POr. TTT RS, O She, QCT jntil 1 opened the door. They both |jce in millions upon millins of miles of | looked a little pale. | fiying. A crystallized bit of metal in a |, “Well” said Jerdone, “here we are” ball and a socket joint connecting the They got up almost reluctantly, looked strut to the wheel axle was responsible. |out” at the landing gear and the | crumpled wing tip, and walked out of | the plane, where Jerdone went through a gantlet of hand-clasps, back-slapping | and congratulations from fellow pilots | who had witnessed the landing. It is one of those things that will be talked about wherever pilots meet, though it was over so quickly that few in the crowd of spectators realized that any- thing was wrong. Hour and Half of Misery. | BALLOON FALLS, 2 HURT (A’ —Suddenly dropping 25 feet into & crowd of spectators when a large bal- loon in which they were making an Henderson of Ohio, chute jumpers, were injured severely. Mrs.” Henderson suffered a spinal “That was an hour and a hal? of | fracture and Henderson was cut on the misery,” was Jerome's only comment. | face. Dressed as “Mr. and Mrs. Santa Only once on record has a land plane | Claus,” they were here to present & professional para- CHURCH PROPERTY CONTEST LOOMING Proposed Methodist Building | Addition Conflicts With City | Regulations. A contest between the Methodist | Board of T:mperance, Prohibition and Public Morals and Government agencies loomed today over the _construction plans for a $600,000 addition to the | Methodist Building near the Capitol grounds. The Methodist Board last night in executive sessfon took cognizance of re- ports that an effort would be made to condemn the property at Maryland avenue and First street northeast for expansion of the Government building program. The board left to its Building Com- mittee the task of harmonizing all differences. This committee, headed by former Senator Rice W. Means, plans to meet soon. | Municipal Regulations Interfere. U.S.NavyAdvertises Destroyers for Sale On Installment Plan TREATY SHIP COST HOLDING U. 3. BACK | Admiral Pratt of Opinion That Full Strength Will Not Be Reached by 1936. By the Associated Press. Destroyers on the installment plan will be offered to the public on January 10, 1931. The Navy Department yester- day announced 19 decommis- sioned destroyers now at the Philadelphia Navy Yard would be sold to bonded purchasers on either a cash or a deferred pay- Moving About Country Looking for Work Found Increasing Re- lief Problem. shing out his land- | of relief and thanksgiving and then |ing gear and lower wing, but climbing | BRECKENRIDGE, Tex., December 10 | By the Associated Press. Other members of the Building Com- mittee are Maurice Otterback, president of the Anacostia National Bank; Bishop | Willlam F. McDowell of Washington; Benjamin Meeks, District of Columbia | superintendent, of the Methodist Church | and Dr. Clarence True Wilson, general secretary of the board, ex-officlo. The | board planned to erect an addition along | Maryland avenue to a height of 72 feet, which is the height of the present build- ing. Municipal regulations adopted since | these plans were approved restrict build- | of the National Broadcasting Co., Col. ing on the north side of Maryland ave- | Woods sald the person without a job is nue to a height of 60 feet. | better off where he is in view of the Board members said today they Wnllld‘ way local authorities are handling their not build a “broken back” structure and | unemployment problems. | that an effort would be made to find| He sald welfare organizations re- out just what opposition exists to their | ported they were providing for the plan. home folk first, and a majority of in It was said that if fair price could | dustrial efforts to increase employment | be obtained from the Government, the | would begin with taking back former board would be quite willing to move | employes. from the site, but board memberx‘ ‘The movement of large numbers of thought the Government had no need | unemployed about the country would | of the property and would not pay the | increase the national problem, he said figure they would want. Property Held Worth $275,000, The Methodist Church paid approxi- mately $26,000 for the Methodist Build- ing site and erected its building at an approximate cost of $500,000. ‘The value of the property alone today is said to be about $275,000. ASKS FIRE H;&ZARD STUDY A resolution proposing an inquiry into fire hazards in the Senate wing of the Capitol and in the Senate Office Build- ing was introduced late yesterday by Senator Copeland, Democrat, of New York. It was referred to the Committee on Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate for report Un:mployed persons were warned last night by Col. Arthur Woods, chairman of the President’s Emergency Commit- tee for Employment, that they will only increase their difficulties if they go away from home looking for work Many cities, particularly in the South, he said, report that the transient un- employed situation has become such that it is overwhelming them YOU MOy R\ READING Vi‘lfin A —order today. Speaking over a Nation-wide network | the Navy's 20 per cent deposit. malted, fermented or intoxicating | | Navy would not be built up to the max- 1918 and_ 1919, displace 1027 | | Admiral Pratt, chief of Naval Opera- | Such a program would make the cost WO00DS WARNS JOBLESS tion of a London treaty Navy could be Chairman Britten recalled testimony | would be presented to the next Con- general board had changed its mind ‘I think they are melting,” Pratt | the London Conference sald 18 8-inch- proposed limitation in that category ment basis. Under the latter plan bids must be accompanied with a The purchaser is forbidden to | | BY the Associated Press. transport “any spiritous, vinous, | | The opinion that the United States liquid of any kind.” | imum _ strength allowed by the London All vessels were built between treaty by 1936 was expressed today by tons, are 314 feet long and were tions, before the House Naval Commit- designed for 35 knots speed. | tee. | too much, Pratt said, while expressing { hope that_authorization for construc- TO STAY IN HOME CITIES obiatned vy that time | Pratt Hints Change. by Secretary Adams that a general con- | struction program for the treaty Navy gress Britten asked whether about 8-inch-gun cruisers since the London naval treaty replied. The general board about the time of gun cruisers would be necessary for adequate defense, and objected to a with the difference to be made up in 6-inch-gun cruise . | Small Guns Have Use. | Pratt sald he would want only a limited number of 6-inch-gun cruisers for “close in fleet work,” under the | protection of battleship guns, adding, “Then 1 would take all the 8-inc allowed—they are excellent.” Britten expressed the opinion that the willingness of other powers signa- tory to the treaty to let the United States “build all the 6-inch-gun ships we want” was “good evidence” that they are not the best. CAN'T KEEP A GOOD THING butried. That’s why Reading Anthra- cite is mined for us to deliver to people who insist on heating satisfaction | ascent was ripped, Mr. and Mrs. W. P. | e size of Jerdone's ship been landed 'Santa Claus stunt for a newspaper. SYNO A Handkerchief Inhalant for HEAD COLDS A few drops on your handkerchief, inhale frequently and your cold will pass away. 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