Boston, Feb. 28—The army airplane DH-4 B-3 set what is said to be a new record for the flight from Dayton, O., to Boston today when it flew the 725 miles in five hours and 50 minutes. The flight, a nonstop trip, was carried out to test new instruments which enable flying through fog and above clouds. At the Boston airport, where the aviators landed, it was said that it was a complete success.
The trip was made by Lieutenant Lyman P. Whitten and Navigation Engineer Bradley H. Jones, test pilot and instrument engineer, respectively, at McCook Field, Dayton. The flight was made at an average altitude of 8,000 or 9,000 feet and the pilots were guided entirely by the new earth inductor compass, a new indicator and other instruments. They had a favoring wind much of the way.
From the front page of The Yadkin Ripple, Yadkinville, N.C., Thursday, March 4, 1926
According to Wikipedia, the earth inductor compass, also known as the induction compass, was a significant advancement in aviation navigation during the 1920s. It was first patented by Donald M. Bliss in 1912 and further refined in the 1920s by Paul R. Heyl and Lyman James Briggs of the U.S. National Bureau of Standards. This compass used the earth’s magnetic field to generate an electric current, which varied based on the compass’s orientation. The variation in the generated voltage was measured to determine orientation. Providing pilots with a more stable and reliable reference instrument compared to traditional magnetic compasses. Charles Lindburgh used this compass on his transatlantic flight in the Spirit of St. Louis in 1927. Thanks, Wikipedia!
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073180/1926-03-04/ed-1/seq-1/
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