World War II bomb defused in Tokyo suburb
     TOKYO (July 27, 1997 1:04 p.m. EDT) -- After moving more than
 6,000 people to safety, Japanese military experts on Sunday defused
 a 1-ton bomb believed to have been dropped by a U.S. plane during
 World War II.
     The bomb was the second in a month found at a suburban Tokyo
 site, once the location of a factory that built engines for Japanese
 fighter planes, said Yuji Harasawa, an official of the Musashino
 city government.
     The plant was a frequent U.S. bombing target during the war,
 Harasawa said.
     The latest bomb, 6 feet long and 2 feet wide, was discovered
 July 8 by construction workers. It took about two hours to defuse,
 Harasawa said.
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     Floyd Bennett, b. near Warrensburg, N.Y., Oct. 25, 1890,
 d. Apr. 25, 1928, was an aviator for two of the Arctic expeditions
 of the 1920s and the first pilot to fly over the North Pole. He was
 awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his achievements.
 Bennett was an aviator and mechanic for the 1925 MacMillan expe-
 dition to the Arctic; and in 1926, with the explorer Richard E. Byrd
 in his crew as navigator, he piloted a plane nonstop from Spits-
 bergen to the North Pole and back. On a flight to rescue stranded
 flyers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, he was stricken with pneumonia
 and died in Quebec.
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    Richard Evelyn Byrd, b. Winchester, Va., Oct. 25, 1888,
 d. Mar. 11, 1957, was an aviator, Antarctic explorer, and author.
 He attended the U.S. Naval Academy and later became an aviator. In
 1925 he commanded a naval flying unit on the MacMillan expedition to
 the Arctic, and on May 9, 1926, he and Floyd Bennett flew over the
 North Pole, for which Byrd was awarded the Congressional Medal of
 Honor. With backing from private donors, Byrd organized (1928) an
 expedition to Antarctica, establishing a base called Little America
 on the Ross Ice Shelf near Roosevelt Island. With three companions,
 he flew (1929) to the South Pole and back. On his return to the
 United States he was given a hero's welcome and promoted to the
 rank of rear admiral. Byrd led further Antarctic expeditions in
 1933-35, 1939-41, 1946-47, and 1955-56. In 1934 he spent five months
 by himself near the South Pole, an experience described in his book,
 Alone (1938).
 Bibliography: Gladych, Martin, Admiral Byrd of Antarctica (1960);
 Hoyt, E. P., The Last Explorer (1968); Montague, Richard, Oceans,
 Poles and Airmen (1971).
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     The American civil engineer Octave Chanute, b. Feb. 18, 1832,
 d. Nov. 23, 1910, is best known for the support and encouragement
 he gave the Wright brothers. Chanute designed bridges, supervised
 railroad tracklaying, and was chief engineer of several railroads,
 including the Erie Railroad.
     Chanute first became interested in aviation in about 1875. In
 1894 he published a group of papers on flight under the title
 "Progress in Flying Machines." This brilliant treatise combined
 aeronautical theory with aviation history. Chanute maintained an
 active correspondence with virtually all the important figures in
 world aviation, including Otto Lilienthal and the Wright brothers.
 In 1896 he began experimenting with gliders and, in collaboration
 with Augustus M. Herring, developed an advanced glider that was the
 safest and most stable of its time.
 Richard P. Hallion
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