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On This Day: British pilots make first ever flight over Mount Everest
APRIL 3, 1933: British pilots made the first ever flight over Mount Everest on this day in 1933 – beating French and German teams to the top of the world’s tallest peak.
Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, the Marquis of Clydesdale, led two RAF planes 13,500ft higher than anyone had ever flown before after reaching the 29,029ft summit.
The 30-year-old MP, who had become the youngest ever squadron leader, was aided by a heated suit, oxygen mask and engine specially designed for high altitudes.
A British Pathé newsreel shows Lord Clydesdale returning home to Renfrew, Scotland alongside flying partner, Flight Lieutenant David McIntyre.
A huge crowd met them on the airfield as they arrived in a Westfield PV-3 biplane – the same kind of aircraft they used to fly over Everest.
The expedition was funded by philanthropist Lady Houston, who grew up in poverty before marrying a wealthy brewer and inheriting his fortune.
It was one of several during this early era of aviation when pilots such as Charles Lindenbergh, the first man to cross the Atlantic, continually set new records.
Each one helped engineers develop new technologies to help push the boundaries further.
In the case of the Houston Mount Everest Expedition, the mission revealed the need for pressurised cabins, which are now commonplace.
Despite their heated suits, the airmen were chilled to the bone in –33C air and struggled with the oxygen masks required at 31,000ft above sea level.
[On This Day: Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first to climb Mount Everest]
They also had to contend with 60mph winds – 50% higher than what was thought to be safe.
Yet Lord Clydesdale and McIntyre managed to guide their planes just over the top of the Himalayan range with their powerful Bristol Pegasus engines boosted by updraft.
When they reached Everest, they swept around the peak for 15 minutes, giving Stewart Blacker a chance to take the first ever photographs of the mountaintop.
Meanwhile, McIntyre was forced to share his breathing mask with co-pilot SR Bonnett after his oxygen hose split – triggering a race against time.
The party turned back and descended as quickly as they could, making history in the process.
It would be another 20 years before New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became first men known to climb Mount Everest.
Like Clydesdale, they were only able to achieve this seemingly impossible feat thanks to advances with oxygen masks.
British explorers George Mallory and Sandy Irvine were among many who failed conquer the mountain named after surveyor Sir George Everest.
The first ascent without the use of supplemental oxygen was not achieved until 1975 when Italian Reinhold Messner and Austrian Peter Habeler achieved the feat.
Since 1953, more than 3,000 people have reached the summit of Everest - mostly using breathing equipment – and around 200 are expected to attempt it this summer.
[On This Day: Maiden flight of Wellington Bomber]
Lord Clydesdale, who became the Duke of Hamilton upon the death of his father in 1940, also made history by being one of four brothers who all made squadron leader rank at the beginning of World War II.
In 1941 he was the centre of one of the most bizarre events when Nazi deputy leader Rudolf Hess flew to Scotland and was captured in a bid to meet him and broker peace.
