April 3 1933 – The Marquis of Clydesdale Leads the First Flight Over Mount Everest
*Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons At the height of an era when pilots of all kinds pushed their aircraft to the limits, Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, the Marquis of Clydesdale, took his Westland PV-3 to a whole new altitude — he led a formation of Royal Auxiliary Air Force planes over the summit of Mount Everest. With the successful completion of his objective on April 3, 1933, “Lord Clydesdale” pipped a pair of German and French teams but, more importantly, made a crucial discovery for the future of aviation: the need for cabin pressurization. In the mid-1920s, after just two decades of powered flight, men and women turned the rapidly-developing technology into a thrill ride. For every pilot like Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart focused on achieving aviation landmarks, dozens more planned expeditions and performed daring aerobatic feats. It was as if man discovered a new thrilling new toy and could not help but search for different ways to play with it, much as a young child on Christmas morning. As early as 1924, three years before Lindbergh would fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, English World War I pilot Sir Alan Cobham focused his attention on conquering Mount Everest. As he approached the steep peak, he found it difficult to breathe well below the summit, forcing him to turn back.
