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[[newspaper clipping]] [[image - photograph of men standing around a balloon labelled GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY U.S. ARMY AIR CORPS]] [[caption]] Capt. Stevens and Lt. Anderson with Gondola. PHOTO BY RISE STUDIO (815) [[/caption]] Stratosphere Balloon Half Size Of Macon Scheduled to Take Off From Black Hills Camp Friday Major W. E. Kepner and Captain A. W. Stevens Prepared to Seek New Record and Scientific Data in Army-Geographic Society '300-Ft. Exclamation Point'; Craft Carries 80-Ft. 'Chute for Safety Preparations for the most venturesome aerial voyage yet undertaken by man in his quest for the stratosphere's secrets — the expedition backed jointly by the National Geographic Society and the Army Air Corps — are now virtually complete. Any time after the latter part of this week when weather conditions are propitious for the daring adventure, the largest and probably the oddest-looking free balloon the world has even seen will rise from a little glen protected by towering 450-foot cliffs in the Black Hills eleven miles southwest of Rapid City, S. D., bearing two men and a ton of scientific equipment on a flight that is expected to carry them fifteen miles or more into the empyrean — literally miles above the highest level reached by any of their predecessors in the exploration of high altitudes. If everything goes as they expect, the crew of the giant stratosphere balloon, Major William E. Kepner, pilot, and Captain Albert W. Stevens, observer-photographer, will pass four hours reaching their craft's "ceiling," another four hours at this "Peak" altitude and a like period in the return to earth. Unless their calculations are wrong the balloon will drift 600 to 700 miles to the east and slightly south during its half-day flight, coming down somewhere in northern Missouri, southern Iowa or western Illinois. Bag Capacity 3,000,000 Cubic Feet Although the gas bag that is to lift Kepner and Stevens and the "stratosphere laboratory" set up about them in their hermetically sealed, eight-foot, four-inch spherical gondola of magnesium alloy, has a capacity of 3,000,000 cubic feet — five times that of the Settle-Fordney balloon that made stratosphere history last fall by rising to a height of twelve miles, and triple the size of Russia's ill-fated Syrius — it will be but a shriveled semblance of this bulk when it leaves the ground. Most of its gas-proof rubberized envelope will hang in slack folds beneath a mere 300,000 cubic foot globule of hydrogen in the apex of the balloon, giving it "the general appearance of a 300-foot exclamation point," since the buoyant gas expands with altitude to such an extent that it would be fruitless to fill the bag to more than one-tenth its capacity. While this partial inflation is in progress — and it is expected that nine hours will be required to transfer the required volume of gas from three [[?]] loads of hydrogen cylinders already neatly stacked up along one side of the 600-foot square "stratosphere camp" in the Black Hills — an expert "balloon inspector," suspended beneath a small captive balloon, will be "walked" constantly about the swaying monster of wrinkled fabric as it slowly expands to spot and smooth out any kinks that may occur in the rigging or the folds of the stratosphere bag. Present plans are to carry on this inflating process at night so that the flight may begin at dawn and be completed in daylight hours. The National Geographic Society description of the procedure to be followed says: Take Off Schedule Friday "It is probable that everything will be in readiness for the take-off by June 22. After that, weather alone will determine the zero-hour for the flight. Meteorological experts at the Black Hills camp will receive hourly reports from a radius of more than 1,000 miles in preparation for the great event. As soon as their data indicates ten hours or more in advance that the following day will bring clear skies between the Black Hills and the Mississippi River, work will begin on the most difficult free balloon job ever undertaken. Never before has even a 1,000,000 cubic foot bag been inflated and launched into the air." Details of cavalry from Fort Meade will patrol the camp site and supply man-power for the handling lines with which the giant balloon — which is nearly half the size of the Navy dirigible, Macon — will be held in leash until all is ready for the take-off. At this time the metal gondola in which Kepner and Stevens are to ride, with its two open "man-holes" and numerous glass-covered observation ports, will be resting on or near the ground, the rigging of the balloon and the shroud lines of an eighty-foot airplane parachute attached to a ring about the equator of the hollow metal ball. The slack folds of the giant parachute itself are to be draped from the long rigging lines beneath the impatient stratosphere bag in a manner to guarantee that it will pull free without fouling if any unforeseen mishap should loosen the gondola from the balloon and send it plummeting toward the earth. Flyers to Have Parachutes In addition to the parachute for their precious sky-going "laboratory," Major Kepner and Captain Stevens each will have an individual parachute of that type that all Army flyers are required to wear and can "bail out," if need arises, through the individual "man-holes" by which they will enter the gondola. The Kepner-Stevens stratosphere balloon, in addition to its immense size and many other unique features, boasts the first "power-driven gondola" ever carried by a craft of this type, thanks to an ingenious outboard motor installation designed by the two aeronauts so that they can rotate their laboratory slowly as it rises through the air. This characteristic is achieved by means of a curved and hinged metal arm that folds up against the side of the gondola, but can be extended until its outer end, on which an eight-inch electric fan is mounted, is fourteen feet from the gondola. Driven by electric batteries inside the aerial laboratory, this can be turned off and on at will and will serve as a propeller to turn the gondola and its supporting balloon so that rigidly mounted instruments will not be constantly either in the shade or the sun's direct rays and therefore can be expected to give truly representative readings. Two Stops on the Way The stratosphere explorers plan at least two brief stops on the way to the "ceiling" of their craft, one at the seven and one-half and the other at the eleven and one-quarter mile level, with a series of special observations at each halt. Temporarily staying the balloon's rise presents no particular problem; Captain Kepner, as he approaches the altitude where it is desired to hover, merely will cease jettisoning ballast from the 7,000-pound load of lead "dust" or fine shot with which the bag is to leave the ground. Actually Major Kepner and Captain Stevens will close and seal the man-hole ports of the gondola when they have reached a height approximately equaling that of Pike's Peak. The pressure of then maintaining inside the metal ball (ten or twelve pounds to the square inch) will remain fairly constant throughout the remainder of the flight, although it will be increased slightly from time to time as the flyers freshen their air supply by spilling small quantities of liquid oxygen and liquid air from vacuum bottles onto the floor of their laboratory, where it will quickly evaporate. Carbon dioxide exhaled by the two men will be absorbed by small bags of chemicals with an affinity for this gas which are to be slung around the inside of the gondola. At the peak of the flight the outside atmospheric pressure will have dropped to only a few ounces per square inch, the air being only one-twenty-fifth as dense fifteen miles up as at sea level. The total take-off weight of the stratosphere balloon will be 16,000 pounds, 5,000 of this being represented in the bag itself and rigging which harnesses it to the 450-pound gondola. Crew, scientific equipment and the 7,000-pound ballast load will account for the remainder of the gross load to be lifted by the big bag. [[/newspaper clipping]] [PAGE 231]
