The hero of the week, Commander Richard Evelyn Byrd (see p. 10), did not keep the world waiting to hear what his plans were for the future. Before rumor could put him into the cinema or vaudeville circuits he announced in Paris that during the next eight years he would try to 1) take 50 men (including ten scientists), many dogs and sledges and two planes, to explore the unmapped South Polar region,* which may be largely free of snow in antarctic summer months; 2) to soar over the wide jungles of Brazil, mapping mountains and rivers; 3) cruise the length and breadth of the Arabian Desert. Asked if he might not try a bird's-eye look at Mt. Everest, Commander Byrd said: "That's an interesting flight but it's not in my line."
The flying world, stirred up as never before by three transatlantic flights within 41 days, buzzed everywhere with ambitious designs. Notable among the flight-planners were:
Maurice Drouhin. In Paris, Maurice Drouhin, commercial pilot, holder of many records, announced that he and a comrade were ready to fly a Farman (French make) biplane across the Atlantic and back. But Charles A. Levine of Manhattan was in Paris, hunting everywhere for someone to pilot him back to the U. S. in the Bellanca ship, Columbia, that flew from New York to Berlin.
Clarence D. Chamberlin, Mr. Levine's onetime employe, was no longer obliged by contract to pilot Mr. Levine and declined the latter's invitation to fly the Columbia home. Mr. Levine approached Lieut. Bernt Balchen, Byrd aide, and Sir Alan Cobham of England, but without success. Then it occurred to Mr. Levine that his homeward pilot might well be a Frenchman. He approached Pilot Pelletier D'Oisy, Paris-to-Tokyo aeronaut. He talked with one-legged Pilot Tarascon, who was to have flown the Atlantic last year with the late Pilot Coli. Finally, after long night sessions, he decided on Maurice Drouhin, whose private plans were virtually complete. He made Pilot Drouhin an offer (reputedly $150,000) which Pilot Drouhin, whose wife was about to have a baby, could not well refuse. Pilot Drouhin said he accepted in order to be the first Frenchman to reach New York by non-stop flight.
Frenchmen were ill-pleased with this explanation and stormed in the newspapers that Pilot Drouhin should have carried out his plans with his countrymen. The Farman Motor & Airplane Co. published a bitter letter about its pilot having been "purchased" and sped its preparations to beat Mr. Levine anyway. The Aero Club of France said it would enter the race too, to insure a French victory.
But Mr. Levine was jubilant. "He [Drouhin] held a long distance record before Chamberlin and I broke it," he said.
Clarence D. Chamberlin, contradicting dark rumors that he bore Mr. Levine ill will, flew with Maurice Drouhin to London in the Levine-owned Columbia, to show the Frenchman its tricks and abilities. From London, Maurice Drouhin and the Columbia conveyed Mr. Levine back to Paris, where Mr. Levine rejoined his attorney and press agent.