Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: Rain Stuff. Lauren Bogbaum. Here in nineteen sustained safe manned
Speaker 1: flight was still a tantalizing dream, just off our fingertips,
Speaker 1: notion that promised freedom and glory and the kind of
Speaker 1: casting off of our earthly shackles that had lured in
Speaker 1: romantics for ages. And so it was in October of
Speaker 1: that year that the entire world, or at least a
Speaker 1: good portion of the eastern United States, looked heavenward toward
Speaker 1: the latest fantastical attempt at real sustained flight. All odds
Speaker 1: were pointing toward New Jersey. Not exactly heavenward, granted, but
Speaker 1: you get the idea where the airship America and its
Speaker 1: crew aimed to be the first manned flight to cross
Speaker 1: the Atlantic. For the article this episode is based on
Speaker 1: how Stuff Works. Spoke with Thomas a museum specialist at
Speaker 1: the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. He said, in
Speaker 1: the early nine hundreds, there's this mystique about aviation. It's futuristic.
Speaker 1: It's this incredible thing. You have the first powered heavier
Speaker 1: than air aircraft with the Wright Brothers in nineteen o three.
Speaker 1: Aviation is thrilling, and that excitement is building. And now
Speaker 1: I've been saying manned, because flight in nineteen ten was
Speaker 1: still mostly the provenance of men, and as it turned out,
Speaker 1: with the airship America one unruly tabbycat in nineteen ten,
Speaker 1: there were those who thought that if long distance multi
Speaker 1: passenger flight were to become a reality, if those longing
Speaker 1: eyes on the ground in New Jersey were to have
Speaker 1: a real chance to fly to Europe, it would be
Speaker 1: on lighter than air Airships like the America or the
Speaker 1: rigid framed German Zeppelins. Both got their lift from either
Speaker 1: hydrogen or helium. Both had small engines to propel the crafts.
Speaker 1: The difference was that the Zeppelin had a large frame
Speaker 1: that held up the fabric that surrounded it. The America,
Speaker 1: in contrast, was basically a big balloon, some two hundred
Speaker 1: feet that's sixty long. First built in France in an
Speaker 1: attempt to reach the North Pole. Its owner was American
Speaker 1: newspaper publisher Walter Wellman, a self defined explorer and ario
Speaker 1: knot a. Wellman's try for the North Pole failed miserably,
Speaker 1: but undaunted, he brought his ship to the US, built
Speaker 1: it bigger, and set his sights on the Atlantic. Wellman
Speaker 1: and his crew took off from Atlantic City a small
Speaker 1: passenger cabin and a wooden lifeboat attached to the bottom.
Speaker 1: Among those on board were Wellman, engineer Melvin Vannomen, navigator F.
Speaker 1: Murray Simon, and a radio operator, Jack Irwin. The flight
Speaker 1: struggled from the start, fighting bad weather and bulky engines
Speaker 1: that apparently had been infected with sand from the New
Speaker 1: Jersey shore off of New England. The engines failed and
Speaker 1: the ship began to drift southward. The trip seemed doomed
Speaker 1: at that point. Even before then, though, the crew had
Speaker 1: to deal with that darned cat. This is the story
Speaker 1: of Kiddo. How Stuff Works also spoke by email with
Speaker 1: Alan Janis, a museum specialist in the Archives department at
Speaker 1: the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. He said, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure whose cat Kiddo was. He may have been Astray,
Speaker 1: who was adopted by America's crew, though Wellman said he
Speaker 1: was the pet of one of the crew. Whatever the case,
Speaker 1: it's unclear why Kiddo as he later became known, was
Speaker 1: included on the flight, but he was definitely not initially
Speaker 1: thrilled to be part of the historic voyage. Later, the
Speaker 1: navigator Simon gave this account to The New York Times quote,
Speaker 1: all the time we have been told to see, I
Speaker 1: am chiefly worried by our cat, which is rushing around
Speaker 1: the airship like a squirrel in a cage. I was
Speaker 1: at the wheel, and jack Erwin, the wireless man, who
Speaker 1: was seated in the lifeboats spended from the car of
Speaker 1: the airship, cried out to me, this cat is raising hell.
Speaker 1: I believe it's going mad. Kitto, notably, was the subject
Speaker 1: of the first wireless transmission from an aircraft. Either Irwin
Speaker 1: or Vanamin wired and said, I quote Roy, come and
Speaker 1: get this damn cat. The crew was so distressed by
Speaker 1: the cat's antics early in the flight that they thought
Speaker 1: to relieve Kiddo of his duties. He was put in
Speaker 1: a bag and lowered toward a trailing boat of newspaperman
Speaker 1: as the America was being towed to see. The handoff
Speaker 1: couldn't be completed, though, and Kiddo was brought back on board.
Speaker 1: The cat eventually settled down as the hours passed and
Speaker 1: the ship drifted from its target. Some seventy two hours later,
Speaker 1: after a thousand and eight miles that's one thousand, six
Speaker 1: d and twenty two kilometers in the air. The America
Speaker 1: was abandoned at sea near Bermuda. The ship was never
Speaker 1: to be seen again, and its crew was rescued by
Speaker 1: a pass steamship. The wooden lifeboat is now among the
Speaker 1: artifacts at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. I'm
Speaker 1: back in New York. The crew was welcomed as heroes.
Speaker 1: Photos were snapped for The Times, with Kiddo front and center,
Speaker 1: and Janice said for a time he was displayed at
Speaker 1: Gimbal's department store in a gilded cage. Afterward, he retired
Speaker 1: from aviation and lived with Wellman's daughter in Washington, d c.
Speaker 1: The last flight of the airship America was not technically
Speaker 1: a successful one, but no airship had ever traveled so far,
Speaker 1: albeit in the wrong direction. The America brought the dream
Speaker 1: of flight, of crossing oceans and a human made flying
Speaker 1: machine closer to reality than it ever had been. Simon
Speaker 1: wrote after the voyage, we sacrificed our airship, but we
Speaker 1: saved our lives. And above all, as Mr Wellman and
Speaker 1: Mr Vanamon will show when they write their technical reports,
Speaker 1: we have gathered a vast amount of useful knowledge which
Speaker 1: will help largely in the solution of big problems relating
Speaker 1: to the navigation of the air and we also saved
Speaker 1: the cat As an epilogue, the first successful transatlantic airship
Speaker 1: voyage was completed about nine years after the America was
Speaker 1: lost in July by the British airship Are thirty four.
Speaker 1: The ship, over three times the size of the America,
Speaker 1: carried a stowaway kitten named whoop See. Today's episode is
Speaker 1: based on the article how a Frisky Feline made aviation
Speaker 1: history on how stuff works dot Com, written by John Donovan.
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio and
Speaker 1: partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and is produced
Speaker 1: by Tyler Clay. Four more podcasts to my heart Radio,
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