Here we have Charles, an engineer-airplane designer, with time off, married to Gladys, an adventurous woman who loves to travel. One evening they contemplated flying around the United States. She offered, "if we can get the plane?" He countered, "Get the plane? Why not build it?" Flying the World: In a Homemade Airplane the Author and Her Husband Enjoy 16,000 Miles of Adventurous Flight Across Europe, Asia, and America, Gladys M. Day, National Geographic Magazine, June, 1932, p. 655. And that's exactly what they did!
"We built our plane in the spring of 1931. We then shipped to England, where it was reassembled. From England we flew to France . . . to Germany . . . over the Balkans to Istanbul . . . across Palestine, Persia, and India . . . up the Chinese coast to Shanghai, in the shadow of impending war between China and Japan . . . we shipped to San Francisco and flew home across the American Continent in December" (p. 655).
Some statistics: total distance: 24,000 miles (as in the title, 16,000 miles of flying). Gasoline consumption: 1,240 gallons, "ranging in price from as low as 22 cents a gallon (in America) . . . to as high as $1.50 per gallon at an English fort in the middle of the Syrian Desert" (p. 655). Total expenses, including hotels and ship passage: $6,000.
Their plane was christened the Errant; high speed was 105 miles per hour, cruising speed was 85 miles per hour, and landing speed was 30 miles per hour" (p. 656). One unique feature of the Errant was that the passenger seat was beside the pilot's seat.
After procuring the necessary maps, passports, visas, and flying permits, they took off from London on May 28. "The thrill of that first take-off, the feeling of the plane lifting from the ground after so many months of waiting and planning, will not soon be forgotten" (p. 657).
It didn't take long for the couple to get lost, They were running out of gas and had to land soon; they weren't sure over which European country they were flying. They chose the next flat field for landing. They feared they were in the Netherlands, in which they had no flying permit. The plane turned out to be in a potato patch in an insane asylum's field in Germany.
All was well. They were "declared welcome and escorted into town . . . Really, we could not have landed in a more charming or picturesque place if we had tried!" (p. 659).
They enjoyed flying over Western and Eastern Europe and eventually crossed the Black Sea into Turkey. "The difference between the East and the West is apparent to the flyer in more ways than simply the change in dress and customs of the people. Beyond Istanbul, flying accommodations were at a premium. It became difficult and often impossible, to obtain weather reports" (p. 662).
After leaving Jerusalem, they turned west, "directly over the Syrian Desert, which in that season of the year was a furnace of heat, a white, glaring expanse of sand, where to lose our way meant almost certain death" (p. 664). I'm reminded that these brave adventurers could not fly more than several thousand feet in the air.
The dangers they survived were many and varied. In Cologne (Germany), their gasoline tank started leaking. The mechanics at the airport wouldn't weld it closed and had to construct a new copper tank (while they waited). In the middle of the night at a hotel in Baghdad (present Iraq), they had to leave because the hotel was on fire! (Let's not forget, in 1931, there were no night flights.) The monsoon season in India made air travel difficult. The two contracted dengue fever in Calcutta and ended up staying there one month.
Due to total engine failure, they had to make an emergency landing on the beach of the Bay of Bengal (India). Charles asked Gladys to drop a smoke bomb so he could determine from which direction the wind was blowing. She did, but it didn't go off. He managed to land just inches from the water. Burmese natives came from the jungle to inspect the strange craft. Both parties decided the other was friendly. The natives helped move the plane close to the trees so the tide wouldn't flood the plane. Then they guided Charles and Gladys, all the while, carrying the plane's engine on bamboo poles through a jungle full of poisonous snakes, six hours to the nearest road close to which there was an actual automobile.
I admire Charles: no one could help him repair the engine so he took it apart and rebuilt it himself! He decided that it would be easier to float the engine back to the plane by water in a 'dugout' canoe. This in itself was another adventure but the two were able to continue their journey after that.
(Please note: this article is as interesting as a juicy romance novel, but it is long! I will finish it another day and report the continuing progress and conclusion!)
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