Northwest History. Aviation 8. Wilkins' Expedition, United States.

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1926
• Subjects: arctic planes; monoplanes; Fairbanks; Alaska; Palmer Hutchinson; North American Newspaper Alliance; George Hubert Wilkins; Detroit arctic expedition; Carl B. Eielson; pioneer Alaska mail pilot; Liberty-engined ship; Captain Wilkins; Ray Howard; Fokker company rigger; C. M . Wiseley; Selfridge field aviation pilot mechanic; Thomas G. Lanphier; United States army flyer; Point Barrow; gasoline consumption; Hasbrouck Heights; N. J.; Pennsylvania hills; Howard; Holland; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; Aviation; Arctic; Detroit; Eielson; Pacific; Wilkins; Barrow
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/86077

Arctic Planes Will Fly Soon: Two Monoplanes Will Take Air At Fairbanks, Alaska, Thursday Or Friday./10 Days Of Testing./ Single Motored And Triple Motored Machines Will Explore Polar Sea For Land. ARCTIC PLANES WILL FLY SOON. Two Monoplanes Will Take Air at Fairbanks, Alaska, Thursday or Friday. 10 DAYS OF TESTING Single Motored and Triple Motored Machines Will Explore Polar Sea For Land. By Palmer Hutchinson, special correspondent of The Spokesman-Review and the North American Newspaper Alliance with the Detroit arctic expedition. (Copyright, 1926, by North American Newspaper Alliance.) FAIRBANKS, Alaska, March 9. -- Captain George Hubert Wilkins announced today that he will send the Detroit arctic expedition's two monoplanes on their initial Alaska flight either Thursday or Friday of this week. Carl B. Eielson, pioneer Alaska mail pilot, will take off first with the Liberty-engined ship, accompanied by Captain Wilkins, Ray Howard, the Fokker company rigger, and others. Eielson will take a half-hour test flight on a circular course over the frame store and hotel buildings, the railroad shops and the cluster of little chimney-crowned cabins which are the city of Fairbanks. The Days Of Testing. When Eielson lands, C. M . Wiseley, the former Selfridge field aviation pilot mechanic, will take off in the larger three-motored plane, the ship now slated for the first of the expedition's flights over the polar sea. He, too, will take a half-hour flight over Fairbanks, on which he will be accompanied by Captain Wilkins and Major Thomas G. Lanphier, the United States army flyer who accompanies the party as unofficial government observer. The two 30-minute flights will mark the beginning of 10 days of intensive testing which will all but determine in advance the scope of the flying that the expedition will do while searching for undiscovered lands north of Point Barrow. The tests will show if the drafting room figures on gasoline consumption and carrying capacity are accurate. The single-motored plane has been in the air before. It was completed and started west from the Fokker plant at Hasbrouck Heights, N. J. last fall to participate in the Ford reliability tour. While it was above the Pennsylvania hills the engine stalled, and Howard, who was at the wheel, was driven into a forced landing that ended against a stone wall. Since then the ship has been rebuilt and re-engined. Big Plane's First Flight. But when the big three-motored monoplane rises from the Fairbanks field this week it will be on its maiden flight. Its wings and fuselage reached the United States from the Fokker works in Holland late last December, and it was completed and fitted for arctic flying only a few minutes before it was disassembled and crated for the trip north. It is expected that all four engines will be turned over Wednesday for the first time since they left the factory.