Tag Archives: Laurenza Harley Long

26 October 1938

Smith repeat's Long's climb from a car speeding across Rosamond Dry Lake to the cockpit of the Piper J-3C Cub, "Little Bear,"
Tommy Smith repeats Harley Long’s climb from a car speeding across Rosamond Dry Lake to the cockpit of the Piper J-3C Cub, “Little Bear,” 30 October 1938. Long is flying the airplane. The automobile may be a 1935 Ford Model 48. (Santa Rosa Republican, Vol. 74, Number 264, Friday, 4 November 1938, Page 17, Columns 3–5)

26 October 1938: During an attempt to set a world endurance record with the Piper J-3C Cub, Little Bear, NX21679, one of the two pilots, Thomas Harvey Smith,¹ became ill. It was decided to replace him.

The other pilot, Clyde Henry Schleiper, lowered a rope from the Cub to a car driving on Rosamond Dry Lake. (Rosamond Dry Lake is a playa just west of present day Edwards Air Force Base in the high desert of southern California.) Support personnel attached a parachute to the rope which was then lifted to the airplane. Schlieper climbed to an altitude of 2,000 feet (609.6 meters) while Smith put on the parachute. Smith then jumped, landing safely.

Rosamond Dry Lake. (Museum of Art & History)

Once again flying close to the surface, Schleiper lowered the rope. This time, supporters in the car attached a rope ladder, which Schlieper attached to the airplane. While two men in the car held the lower end of the ladder, the replacement pilot, Laurenza Harley Long ² climbed the ladder from the car to the Cub’s cockpit. The transfer took place without incident.

On 30 October, a second transfer took place. While Harley Long flew the Cub, Schlieper parachuted to the dry lake. On landing, high winds dragged his parachute several hundred feet across the sand. Tommy Smith, recovered from his illness, repeated Long’s climb up the rope ladder to the Cub’s cockpit.

Little Bear took off at Metropolitan Airport, Van Nuys, California, at 1:25 p.m., 23 October 1938. It was forced to land on Rosamond Dry Lake at 3:38 p.m., 1 November, because the auxiliary fuel tank was leaking. The total duration of the flight was 218 hours, 23 minutes.

[Note: The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) stopped recognizing records for duration in 1932 over concerns about pilot fatigue. The National Aeronautic Association also discontinued this type of record in 1935.]

Laurenza Harley Long, a flight instructor for Aircraft Associates, Municipal Airport, Long Beach, California.

Laurenza Harley Long was born 12 October 1908 in Vernon County, Missouri. He was the son of Henry Harrison Long, a farm laborer, and Olive Belle Wheeler Long.

Long’s 1940 Selective Service card describes him as having brown hair, blue eyes, and a ruddy complexion. He was 5 feet, 7½ inches (1.7145 meters) tall and weighed 180 pounds (81.65 kilograms).

Harley Long married Miss Mariam Evelyn Cochrum at Los Angeles, California, 16 December 1927. At the time, Long was employed by the Alpha Beta Market in Whittier, California. They would have a daughter, Luanne.

Long later married Mrs. Addie Mae Berg (neé Addie Mae Hamman) in Arizona, on New Years Eve, 31 December 1934. (Mrs. Berg had been granted a divorce from Selmer Berg, in May.) Long was at that time employed as a laundry driver. Harley and Addie Long would have three children, daughters Harlene and Linda, and son Laury.

Harley Long learned to fly at the Aircraft Associates Flying School at Municipal Airport, Long Beach, California, in 1935. He would later be employed there as a flight instructor.

Long served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, rising to the rank of captain. He was assigned 6th Ferrying Division, Air Transport Command. In 1946, Captain Long was stationed in Hawaii.

“AIR MEDAL AWARDED—Capt. Harley Long (right), veteran Long Beach pilot, is shown above yesterday as Col. C. E. Duncan, commanding officer of the Long Beach Air Force Reserve Training Center, awarded him the Air Medal for meritorious achievement while with the Air Forces during World War II.—(Official Air Force Photo.)” (Long Beach Press-Telegram, Vol. LXI, No. 282, Sunday, 7 November 1948, Page 40, Columns 3 and 4)

Following World War II, Long returned to Aircraft Associates. Unable to fly due to illness, he was employed as an aircraft dispatcher.

On 6 November 1948, Colonel C.E., Duncan, commanding the United States Air Force Reserve Training Center at Long Beach, California, presented the Air Medal to Captain L. H. Long, U.S. Air Force Reserve. The citation read,

Capt. L. H. Long, 0488751, Air Corps, Army of the United States. For meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight from Nov. 29, 1942, to March 2, 1946. As a pilot of both transport and tactical type aircraft, Capt. Long successfully completed many operational flights over vast stretches of Atlantic and Pacific Ocean areas, often within combat zones where enemy interception and antiaircraft fire were probable and expected. The high degree of competence and exemplary devotion to duties displayed by Capt. Long in the performance of hazardous flight duties reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.

Harley Long died 16 April 1949 at the U.S. Naval Hospital, Long Beach, California, after an extended illness which had been contracted during his wartime service in the South Pacific. His remains were interred at Rose Hills Memorial Park, Whittier, California.

Piper J-3C Cub NX21679, “Little Bear.” Left to right, Wes Carroll and Clyde Henry Schlieper, 20 October 1938. (Watson Airfotos, Inc./Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum NASM-7A3719)

NX21679 was a Piper J-3C-50 Cub. It was owned by Harvey Martin, president of Aircraft Associates, a Piper distributor for Arizona, California and Nevada. The J-3C was a single-engine, two-place, high-wing monoplane with fixed landing gear. It was developed from the earlier Taylorcraft J-2 and the Piper J-3. The cockpit had a tandem configuration. The airplane was constructed of a welded steel tube fuselage, and the wings had wooden spars and riveted aluminum ribs. It was covered with doped fabric.

Piper J-3C Cub cutaway illustration

The Piper J-3C Cub was 22 feet, 4½ inches (6.820 meters) long, with a wingspan of 35 feet, 2½ inches (10.732 meters). Its height, when parked in 3-point attitude, was 8 feet, 6 inches (2.591 meters) to the top of the propeller arc. The wing has a chord of 5 feet, 3 inches (1.600 meters). It has an angle of incidence of 1° 37′ and 0° 41′ negative twist. The variable incidence horizontal stabilizer has a span of 9 feet, 6 inches (2.896 meters). The J-3C had an approximate empty weight of 670 pounds (304 kilograms), depending on installed equipment, and a maximum gross weight of 1,110 pounds (503 kilograms)

The J-3C-50 Cub was powered by an air-cooled, normally-aspirated, 171.002-cubic-inch-displacement (2.802 liter) Continental A50-1 horizontally-opposed four-cylinder overhead-valve engine with a compression ratio of 5.4:1. It was rated at 50 horsepower at 1,900 r.p.m. at Sea Level, and required a minimum of 73-octane gasoline. The direct-drive engine turned a two-blade laminated wood propeller with a maximum diameter of 6 feet, 9 inches (2.057 meters). The A50 series engines had a dry weight ranging from 160 to 176 pounds (75.6 to 79.8 kilograms), depending on variant (-1 through -9)

The J-3C-50 had a maximum capacity of 12 gallons (45.4 liters) of gasoline and 1 gallon (3.8 liters) of lubricating oil. The airplane had a maximum speed in level flight of 90 miles per hour (145 kilometers per hour), and 122 miles per hour (196 kilometers per hour) in a glide or dive.

Piper J-3C Cub. Hans Groenhoff Collection, NASM-HGC-1121)

“Lock Haven Yellow”

Thomas H. Smith

¹ On 28 May 1939, Thomas Harvey Smith departed Old Orchard Beach, Maine, aboard his Aeronca 65C Chief, NX22456, in an attempt to fly across the Atlantic Ocean to Croydon Airport, London, England. He was never seen again. In August 1941, the crew of a RCAF Douglas Digby Mk.I (B-18A Bolo) discovered the wreck of the airplane north of Burgeo, Newfoundland. A note had been left in the airplane by Smith, saying that he was going to attempt to walk to safety,

The note reads:

Iced down at 10:40 E.S.T. A.M.
May 28-1939
Thomas H. Smith

Have some food and emergency supplies.
I’m walking
South then will walk
west if I hit ocean.
North-Northwest
that is down the mountain. If I can’t

find a house will try to come back
to ship. Weather
sleeting – Thermo-
meter dropping – Am afraid to stay in ship
for fear of freezing while asleep
.
THS.

Note left in wreck of Aeronca by Thomas Harvey Smith. (Microfilm record, Maxwell Air Force Base, via Phil Mosher, “Mystery Cloaks Fate of Flier.”)

² Disclosure: Laurenza Harley Long (12 October 1908–16 April 1949), also known as Harley L. Long, was TDiA’s 1st cousin, once removed. He was the son of my maternal grandmother’s half sister, Olive Belle Wheeler Long.

© 2024, Bryan R. Swopes