Cold Flight

At Pisa in Northern Italy, Roald Amundsen is testing the two special machines built by the German designer Dormier. In a few days he will fly north by way of Zurich, through Germany and Norway to Spitzenbergen. Thence to the North Pole and Alaska. In the barren wastes of polar territory, a forced landing means almost certain death.

Motor failure is provided for by using two motors, one behind the other, placed on top of the wing, each driving its own propeller. In an ordinary twin engine airplane, with the engines placed one on each side of the centre, if one motor fails there is a dangerous tendency to slew the machine 'round. With the motors in tandem, the thrust of the propellers is always at the centre of the plane; and with one motor completely out of commission, the aviator can keep on going, even though at a slower speed. The engines are carefully housed to prevent freezing. The fuselages are double-walled like a thermos bottle, with nonconducting material between the walls. A special dynamo provides electricity for heating devices to keep the crew warm in the enclosed cabin, and to prevent gasoline and oil from freezing.

Captain Amundsen explains that at some thousands of feet, the temperature is less cold than at the surface of the ice. He hopes it will never be colder than 20 degrees Fahrenheit below zero.

This temperature must be endured for seven hours (600) miles from Spitzenbergen to the Pole; for twelve hours (1,150 miles) from the Pole to Point Barrow, Alaska.