Word: balchen
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...courageous flight, counseled by wise Bernt Balchen, Miss Earhart became not only the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic but also she set a speed record from Harbor Grace of 14 hr. 56 min. Advance reports of good weather she found "100% wrong." Ice on the wings forced her down into rain, fog and gusty squalls, perilously close to the water. Her altimeter failed. A broken exhaust ring spurted flame. Gasoline from a leaky gauge dripped down her neck. But still she flew low because "I'd rather drown than burn up." Pushed north by beam winds...
...Continent between the Ross Sea and the Weddell Sea, three-quarters of which has never been seen by man. Principals will be Explorer Lincoln Ellsworth, inactive in Arctic or Antarctic exploration since his friend Roald Amundsen lost his life seeking General Umberto Nobile in May 1928, and Pilot Bernt Balchen (Byrd transatlantic and South Pole nights). The expedition plans to leave New York in September 1933, sail to a base at Framheim on the Bay of Whales, from there fly east without stop over a 1,450-mi. route, then back again, bisecting the Antarctic Continent. Purposes: 1) to determine...
Born. To flyer & Mrs. Bernt Balchen; a son, weight 8¾ lb.; at Hasbrouck Heights...
Byrd's failure to take off for France before Lindbergh did is the first object of Fokker's scorn. Concerning the flight itself (in the Fokker-built America), Fokker dwells upon what airmen already knew: that the ability and steady nerve of Pilot Bernt Balchen were largely-if not solely-responsible for the right-side-up landing of the plane near Ver-Sur-Mer in France and the escape of the crew. Here he italicizes a sentence from Byrd's own book Skyward: "Balchen happened to be at the wheel...
Sought out by newshawks last week, the scattered crew of the America made characteristic comments. Said Byrd in Little Rock, Ark.: "I have no objection to Mr. Fokker's saying that Balchen did the better job on the transatlantic flight than I did. I have always felt that way myself." Said Bernt Balchen, shy by nature and embarrassed by his present position as a Fokker testpilot: "I don't know where Tony got all his information; but there are no mistakes in it." From Noville in Los Angeles: "Byrd commanded, and the rest of us, including Balchen, took...