Walter Wellman

Walter Wellman ( born November 3, 1858 in Mentor, Ohio; † January 31, 1934 in New York) was an American airship pioneer. The reporter got in 1905 from the Chicago Record Herald the contract, effective advertising to cross the first man to the North Pole by airship.

Polar Expeditions

Already in 1893 he had in his attempts to reach the North Pole from Spitsbergen started. A year later, he was convinced that the only way led through the air.

First experiences in polar regions, he had collected in 1894 with the ship Ragnvald Jarl at Walden Iceland in the north of Spitsbergen, where the vessel sank. 1898/99 it reached as head of an expedition the northern tip of the Franz- Josef- country. However, it ended after an arctic phenomenon, a icequakes. The expedition returned by then, she had only 275 km traveled.

On the Portsmouth Peace Conference 1905 Wellman enthusiastic for the French Lebaudy steering balloon. He was safe with this device ( 7500 pounds ) had a payload of 3750 kg to have the right means of locomotion found.

He called his plan the " Wellman Chicago Record Herald Polar Expedition".

The newspapers attacked Wellman mercilessly and accused him of never really think of a performing his daring plans. Wellman was angry and fought constantly about not to let the spread stories about him included in his plans.

" Why now takes Wellmann this journey ," wrote the Berliner Morgenpost. "Is it really scientific or sporting ambition, or is it a sign, as is claimed by many pages? Either it is not. Wellmann has no intention to make the whole flight, he has nothing but the intention to make the attempt. Prior to assuming his unfortunate Arctic journey he said at a farewell dinner: ' We are the first ones to try in an airship to reach the Pole. Whether the experiment succeeds or not, we can not predict, but we have done everything humanly possible. If he does not succeed, we 're the first ones to have taken on this problem. ' Here lies the key to his plan. First: The desire of to be and to have the ' Greatest ' ' First ', is one of the most prominent national traits of Americanism. Then it should be remembered that he did in the was the first who practically tried to reach the Pole, in the airship, of course. It has not succeeded, but in the history of aeronautics you, when really succeed his name later flights to the pole, always have to call in the first place. Also in flight over the ocean, which will sooner or later succeed, he is the first person who has made ​​the attempt " ( cited in: . Heichen, Walter: Adventure Air Berlin, Wroclaw, Katowice, Leipzig. Phoenix -Verlag, 1912)

After a failed attempt in 1906 Wellman succeeded in the summer of 1907 on Spitsbergen a ride on his airship America of 24 kilometers. After a crash landing, he was rescued from Frankfurt polar explorer Theodor Lerner. A second flight in 1909 had to be canceled after 40 miles due to technical problems. This was after Salomon August Andrée 1896/1897 the second attempt to cross the Pole by air. 1910 traveled way also Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the company of polar explorer Erich von Drygalski and meteorologists Hugo Hergesell to Spitsbergen to assess the chances for such a venture.

Atlantic Crossing

1910 Wellman tried his airship America to cross the Atlantic. This attempt failed, about 1600 km from the coast in the ocean. Wellman sat with his emergency but the world's first radio message from an aircraft in a marine vessel from. It read " Come and get the damn cat! " This cat was meant, who had smuggled himself as a stowaway on the airship.

Airship America

Length: 56.7 m (186 ft ) Load capacity: 9500 kg ( 19,000 lbs ) Drive: Three Lorraine -Dietrich engines each with 80 hp with which an average speed of 29 km / h ( 18 mph ) are possible for a period of 120 hours had.