1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,480 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio, Hey 2 00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:13,360 Speaker 1: Rain Stuff. Lauren Bogbaum. Here in nineteen sustained safe manned 3 00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:17,880 Speaker 1: flight was still a tantalizing dream, just off our fingertips, 4 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:21,480 Speaker 1: notion that promised freedom and glory and the kind of 5 00:00:21,600 --> 00:00:24,600 Speaker 1: casting off of our earthly shackles that had lured in 6 00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:29,319 Speaker 1: romantics for ages. And so it was in October of 7 00:00:29,360 --> 00:00:32,239 Speaker 1: that year that the entire world, or at least a 8 00:00:32,240 --> 00:00:36,080 Speaker 1: good portion of the eastern United States, looked heavenward toward 9 00:00:36,159 --> 00:00:41,240 Speaker 1: the latest fantastical attempt at real sustained flight. All odds 10 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:45,040 Speaker 1: were pointing toward New Jersey. Not exactly heavenward, granted, but 11 00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:48,239 Speaker 1: you get the idea where the airship America and its 12 00:00:48,280 --> 00:00:51,480 Speaker 1: crew aimed to be the first manned flight to cross 13 00:00:51,479 --> 00:00:55,279 Speaker 1: the Atlantic. For the article this episode is based on 14 00:00:55,400 --> 00:00:59,000 Speaker 1: how Stuff Works. Spoke with Thomas a museum specialist at 15 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:02,680 Speaker 1: the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. He said, in 16 00:01:02,720 --> 00:01:07,320 Speaker 1: the early nine hundreds, there's this mystique about aviation. It's futuristic. 17 00:01:07,520 --> 00:01:10,720 Speaker 1: It's this incredible thing. You have the first powered heavier 18 00:01:10,720 --> 00:01:14,080 Speaker 1: than air aircraft with the Wright Brothers in nineteen o three. 19 00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:20,120 Speaker 1: Aviation is thrilling, and that excitement is building. And now 20 00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:23,840 Speaker 1: I've been saying manned, because flight in nineteen ten was 21 00:01:23,920 --> 00:01:28,760 Speaker 1: still mostly the provenance of men, and as it turned out, 22 00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:35,520 Speaker 1: with the airship America one unruly tabbycat in nineteen ten, 23 00:01:35,600 --> 00:01:38,400 Speaker 1: there were those who thought that if long distance multi 24 00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:42,120 Speaker 1: passenger flight were to become a reality, if those longing 25 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:44,200 Speaker 1: eyes on the ground in New Jersey were to have 26 00:01:44,280 --> 00:01:46,959 Speaker 1: a real chance to fly to Europe, it would be 27 00:01:47,040 --> 00:01:50,240 Speaker 1: on lighter than air Airships like the America or the 28 00:01:50,320 --> 00:01:54,040 Speaker 1: rigid framed German Zeppelins. Both got their lift from either 29 00:01:54,120 --> 00:01:58,360 Speaker 1: hydrogen or helium. Both had small engines to propel the crafts. 30 00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:01,280 Speaker 1: The difference was that the Zeppelin had a large frame 31 00:02:01,400 --> 00:02:05,280 Speaker 1: that held up the fabric that surrounded it. The America, 32 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:09,120 Speaker 1: in contrast, was basically a big balloon, some two hundred 33 00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:12,639 Speaker 1: feet that's sixty long. First built in France in an 34 00:02:12,639 --> 00:02:16,320 Speaker 1: attempt to reach the North Pole. Its owner was American 35 00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:20,760 Speaker 1: newspaper publisher Walter Wellman, a self defined explorer and ario 36 00:02:20,800 --> 00:02:24,600 Speaker 1: knot a. Wellman's try for the North Pole failed miserably, 37 00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:27,919 Speaker 1: but undaunted, he brought his ship to the US, built 38 00:02:27,919 --> 00:02:32,560 Speaker 1: it bigger, and set his sights on the Atlantic. Wellman 39 00:02:32,639 --> 00:02:35,200 Speaker 1: and his crew took off from Atlantic City a small 40 00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:38,840 Speaker 1: passenger cabin and a wooden lifeboat attached to the bottom. 41 00:02:38,880 --> 00:02:43,000 Speaker 1: Among those on board were Wellman, engineer Melvin Vannomen, navigator F. 42 00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:48,560 Speaker 1: Murray Simon, and a radio operator, Jack Irwin. The flight 43 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:52,160 Speaker 1: struggled from the start, fighting bad weather and bulky engines 44 00:02:52,240 --> 00:02:54,880 Speaker 1: that apparently had been infected with sand from the New 45 00:02:54,960 --> 00:02:58,960 Speaker 1: Jersey shore off of New England. The engines failed and 46 00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:02,440 Speaker 1: the ship began to drift southward. The trip seemed doomed 47 00:03:02,480 --> 00:03:05,679 Speaker 1: at that point. Even before then, though, the crew had 48 00:03:05,720 --> 00:03:09,799 Speaker 1: to deal with that darned cat. This is the story 49 00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:14,520 Speaker 1: of Kiddo. How Stuff Works also spoke by email with 50 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:17,720 Speaker 1: Alan Janis, a museum specialist in the Archives department at 51 00:03:17,720 --> 00:03:21,720 Speaker 1: the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. He said, I'm 52 00:03:21,760 --> 00:03:25,000 Speaker 1: not sure whose cat Kiddo was. He may have been Astray, 53 00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:28,320 Speaker 1: who was adopted by America's crew, though Wellman said he 54 00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:31,960 Speaker 1: was the pet of one of the crew. Whatever the case, 55 00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:36,240 Speaker 1: it's unclear why Kiddo as he later became known, was 56 00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:40,000 Speaker 1: included on the flight, but he was definitely not initially 57 00:03:40,320 --> 00:03:44,360 Speaker 1: thrilled to be part of the historic voyage. Later, the 58 00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:48,040 Speaker 1: navigator Simon gave this account to The New York Times quote, 59 00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:50,440 Speaker 1: all the time we have been told to see, I 60 00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:53,400 Speaker 1: am chiefly worried by our cat, which is rushing around 61 00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:55,880 Speaker 1: the airship like a squirrel in a cage. I was 62 00:03:55,920 --> 00:03:58,480 Speaker 1: at the wheel, and jack Erwin, the wireless man, who 63 00:03:58,520 --> 00:04:00,520 Speaker 1: was seated in the lifeboats spended from the car of 64 00:04:00,560 --> 00:04:03,600 Speaker 1: the airship, cried out to me, this cat is raising hell. 65 00:04:03,880 --> 00:04:08,600 Speaker 1: I believe it's going mad. Kitto, notably, was the subject 66 00:04:08,640 --> 00:04:12,720 Speaker 1: of the first wireless transmission from an aircraft. Either Irwin 67 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:17,160 Speaker 1: or Vanamin wired and said, I quote Roy, come and 68 00:04:17,200 --> 00:04:22,200 Speaker 1: get this damn cat. The crew was so distressed by 69 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:24,640 Speaker 1: the cat's antics early in the flight that they thought 70 00:04:24,680 --> 00:04:27,520 Speaker 1: to relieve Kiddo of his duties. He was put in 71 00:04:27,560 --> 00:04:30,600 Speaker 1: a bag and lowered toward a trailing boat of newspaperman 72 00:04:30,839 --> 00:04:34,600 Speaker 1: as the America was being towed to see. The handoff 73 00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:38,000 Speaker 1: couldn't be completed, though, and Kiddo was brought back on board. 74 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:42,800 Speaker 1: The cat eventually settled down as the hours passed and 75 00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:46,880 Speaker 1: the ship drifted from its target. Some seventy two hours later, 76 00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:50,039 Speaker 1: after a thousand and eight miles that's one thousand, six 77 00:04:50,360 --> 00:04:52,960 Speaker 1: d and twenty two kilometers in the air. The America 78 00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:56,640 Speaker 1: was abandoned at sea near Bermuda. The ship was never 79 00:04:56,680 --> 00:04:59,520 Speaker 1: to be seen again, and its crew was rescued by 80 00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:03,200 Speaker 1: a pass steamship. The wooden lifeboat is now among the 81 00:05:03,279 --> 00:05:07,320 Speaker 1: artifacts at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. I'm 82 00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:10,200 Speaker 1: back in New York. The crew was welcomed as heroes. 83 00:05:10,760 --> 00:05:13,800 Speaker 1: Photos were snapped for The Times, with Kiddo front and center, 84 00:05:14,440 --> 00:05:17,359 Speaker 1: and Janice said for a time he was displayed at 85 00:05:17,400 --> 00:05:21,680 Speaker 1: Gimbal's department store in a gilded cage. Afterward, he retired 86 00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:25,040 Speaker 1: from aviation and lived with Wellman's daughter in Washington, d c. 87 00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:30,960 Speaker 1: The last flight of the airship America was not technically 88 00:05:31,040 --> 00:05:35,120 Speaker 1: a successful one, but no airship had ever traveled so far, 89 00:05:35,520 --> 00:05:38,880 Speaker 1: albeit in the wrong direction. The America brought the dream 90 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:41,839 Speaker 1: of flight, of crossing oceans and a human made flying 91 00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:46,560 Speaker 1: machine closer to reality than it ever had been. Simon 92 00:05:46,600 --> 00:05:50,159 Speaker 1: wrote after the voyage, we sacrificed our airship, but we 93 00:05:50,400 --> 00:05:53,719 Speaker 1: saved our lives. And above all, as Mr Wellman and 94 00:05:53,839 --> 00:05:56,640 Speaker 1: Mr Vanamon will show when they write their technical reports, 95 00:05:56,960 --> 00:05:59,640 Speaker 1: we have gathered a vast amount of useful knowledge which 96 00:05:59,640 --> 00:06:02,800 Speaker 1: will help largely in the solution of big problems relating 97 00:06:02,839 --> 00:06:06,120 Speaker 1: to the navigation of the air and we also saved 98 00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:11,720 Speaker 1: the cat As an epilogue, the first successful transatlantic airship 99 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:14,839 Speaker 1: voyage was completed about nine years after the America was 100 00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:18,960 Speaker 1: lost in July by the British airship Are thirty four. 101 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:22,680 Speaker 1: The ship, over three times the size of the America, 102 00:06:23,080 --> 00:06:32,080 Speaker 1: carried a stowaway kitten named whoop See. Today's episode is 103 00:06:32,080 --> 00:06:35,159 Speaker 1: based on the article how a Frisky Feline made aviation 104 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:38,040 Speaker 1: history on how stuff works dot Com, written by John Donovan. 105 00:06:38,560 --> 00:06:40,240 Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio and 106 00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:42,520 Speaker 1: partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and is produced 107 00:06:42,520 --> 00:06:45,359 Speaker 1: by Tyler Clay. Four more podcasts to my heart Radio, 108 00:06:45,560 --> 00:06:48,159 Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 109 00:06:48,200 --> 00:06:49,600 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.