EMSCO Monoplane
Bromley initially planned to fly the Pacific solo in an experimental Lockheed Explorer monoplane that had been designed for the 1928 transpolar flight made by Australian Hubert Wilkins and his gifted American pilot Carl Ben Eielson. It had languished in the factory after Wilkins had instead chosen Lockheed's new Vega monoplane. Unfortunately, the Explorer's landing gear collapsed during takeoff on Bromley's first transpacific attempt. Two more Explorers were constructed, but both crashed during flight testing. The first came down out of control after tail flutter caused its rudder to fall off in flight. The second crashed and burned while attempting a full-load takeoff test from Muroc Dry Lake, killing Lockheed test pilot Ben Catlin, who staggered from the inferno wreathed in flames.
Bromley's long-suffering Tacoma backers agreed to fund one more attempt. This time the Canadian chose an Emsco monoplane and asked Harold Gatty to be his navigator. Built by the little-known E.M. Smith and Company, the big machine was powered by a 450-hp Wasp engine and had a maximum range in still air of 4,400 statute miles, about 400 miles short of the distance between Tacoma and Tokyo. Unable to increase the Emsco's fuel load, Bromley and Gatty decided to reverse the route and start from Japan. The airmen were confident that they could make up the 400-mile shortfall by riding the eastbound tail winds that generally prevailed over the North Pacific.
In the midst of preparations for the flight, Anne Morrow Lindbergh arrived at Gatty's school. Her husband had used Weems curves on his transatlantic crossing, and on the naval officer's recommendation had sent her to Gatty for navigation training. Lindbergh was planning a transcontinental dash followed by a flight to Central America in his new Lockheed Cirrus, with his wife serving as his navigator. Lindbergh also asked Gatty to prepare route maps and Weems curves for the flights.
On Easter Sunday, 1930, the Lindberghs crossed the continent in 14 hours and 45 minutes, setting a transcontinental record. Afterward Anne Lindbergh wrote to Gatty: "I was very much surprised at how easy it was to take the sights and how quickly and easily one could use the curve and transfer it onto the mercator chart and, finally, how increasingly good the lines of position turned out to be....Thank you very warmly for everything you did to help us (including the plotting board and your kind word of encouragement, and for our two very absorbing and interesting weeks of work)."
In August 1930, after shipping City of Tacoma to Tokyo, Bromley and Gatty flew it to a nearby naval aerodrome. When tests proved that the runway was too short for a full-load takeoff, the airmen searched for another site and eventually chose the beach at Sabishiro, about 200 miles north of Tokyo.
At low tide the sand stretched for 1l¼4 miles. Even so, with a full fuel load, the airmen still needed a ski jump-style ramp to boost the Emsco's takeoff performance. Over a period of three weeks, local villagers helped build a sand hill, which they compacted with a steamroller before laying a runway of planks leading down to the beach.
On September 15, 1930, the improvised airstrip was ready. The generous villagers, who refused to accept any payment for their labor, lined the beach to watch the takeoff. Perched at the top of the ramp, anchored to a big pile by a thick rope, the Emsco strained as Bromley checked the engine. Confident that the Wasp was delivering full power, he signaled to an axman to sever the rope. Even with the ramp's assistance, the Emsco gathered speed very slowly. Lifting off at the very end of the beach, it staggered along, just above a stall, requiring climb power just to remain airborne.
Bromley was eventually able to start a slow climb as fuel was used up and the plane's weight decreased. Four hours out, they encountered fog. Soon after that, the exhaust collector ring fractured and carbon monoxide fumes began to seep into the cockpit. Neither man realized how dangerous it was--even though Bromley found himself laughing uncontrollably and Gatty was suffering from coughing spasms.
Unable to climb above the clouds, Gatty relied throughout the flight on a few snatched sightings of the sun and moon and dead-reckoning navigation. Bromley's task of blind-flying was not helped when the Emsco's early model Sperry artificial horizon "turned over on its back and died," as Gatty later described it. The wind-driven fuel pump also failed, forcing Gatty to spend much of his time operating the emergency hand pump to keep the engine's main fuel tank topped off. He recalled, "The first hour was pure hell, but after that I didn't feel anything."