This continues the report of Lieut. Col. L. V. S. Blacker's exciting National Geographic Magazine article (August, 1933), The Aerial Conquest of Everest: Flying Over the World's Highest Mountain Realizes the Objective of Many Heroic Explorers. So far we have seen the magnitude of his and his team's obstacles, how they surpassed every one, and the thrill of flying over Mount Everest.
The rest of his article deals with the culture of those lands over which he flew and the city in which the historic flight originated, Purnea, India. "The thrill of the flight to Mount Everest brought Purnea into the limelight of the world's news. Excitement was intense, for few, even of the European inhabitants, had ever seen an airplane," (p. 140).
Mount Everest lies in the country of Nepal. I find it interesting that the country of Nepal still retains the same name, although now it is officially, "The Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal." In 1933, the Colonel wrote, "The government of the mountain kingdom of nearly six million people is military. The hereditary Maharaja reigns, but the Prime Minister, who is also entitled Maharaja, rules and controls the army," (photo caption, p. 140). Nepal now contains 27 million citizens.
Everywhere the expedition went in India and Nepal to procure supplies or arrange for permits, they were treated like royalty. "Native Indian potentates came in state, mounted on lumbering, slate-grey elephants, panoplied with silks, silver, gold, and gems, to inspect the two trim planes. Rajahs, planters, and peasants extended every hospitality to the expedition," (photo caption, p. 144).
One unanticipated difficulty was the wind speed at high altitudes. Extensive weather testing at heights of 30,000 feet and above had been done in England but not in India. Until actually tested, it was assumed that wind and also air temperature at that height would be nearly identical. In reality, the winds were much faster in the Himalayan mountain chain, and the temperature actually was 20 degrees warmer. The group was concerned that having extra wind to fight would consume additional fuel and they might not make it back to their home base in Purnea. To take an extra precaution, another landing field was built closer to Mount Everest in Nepal.
Two planes actually made the historic journey to the top of the world. Lieut. Col. Blacker was the observer and photographer, along with his pilot, in the aforementioned Houston-Westland. Another crew of two flew in the Westland-Wallace, for safety and support. For one photo in which one plane has photographed the other, the author recounts, "Both the expedition planes, flying at about 32,000 feet, are approaching Mount Everest. . . Near this point the planes experienced the tremendous down draft, which caused a loss in altitude of about 2,000 feet in a few seconds," (photo caption, p. 149).
Even after the Colonel had flown over Mount Everest and turned south to return to Purnea, he was thoroughly elated, "Our minds were still amazed by the vision we had looked on - that stark, savage beauty on which no man had ever set eyes on before. If life held no other achievement than this, still it were enough," (p. 156).
The scientific goal of the expedition (and that for which they secured funding and permissions) was to explore and map areas never before mapped. The first trip did not accomplish this as many of the photographs were not suitable. The group wanted to make a second flight, but were greatly discouraged by those in England. To abandon this second flight and not achieve their objective "would have been shameful beyond words, because there was no reason against a second flight except the personal risk," (p. 156).
For the second flight, the winds were faster, much more dangerous. When they again passed by Mount Everest, at times they had a clearance of only 100 feet! "Flying over territory which is unmapped, and never before observed from the air, the high-altitude photographs at varying angles raised problems which experts will require months to solve," (photo caption, p. 159).
Another heart-stopping fact: the floor of the airplane had a 'window,' totally open, so the Colonel could have an unobstructed view of the area. At one point during the second flight, he reports, "As I looked vertically down through the open floor, I perceived that the wind force was now so great that our headway was practically nothing," (p. 160). The the pilot changed course and that solved the problem.
As the second flight was almost over and the two planes almost back to the landing field at Purnea, "Now came our greatest anxiety. We had risked all to make the survey photographs a success, and any one of a hundred mischances might have sent them awry. No cameras had ever before been asked to operate in those torrid heats and depths of cold, running unlubricated and never free from the impalpable, all-pervading dust of the plains.
I tore off my mask in the air, then my gloves and helmet, and unfastened the innumerable wires of my electric harness (which heated his flight suit, helmet and goggles) before the wheels touched the familiar green turf of Lalbalu. . . We snatched at the great 40-foot film. All was well. Our task was done. The Eagle cameras were victorious. Mount Everest had fallen to the assaults of science," (p. 162). And now we also can let out the breath we were holding in!
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