6 March 1931: Ruth Rowland Nichols set a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) World Altitude Record of 8,761 meters (28,743 feet) at Jersey City Airport, New Jersey.¹
Nichols’ airplane was a 1928 Lockheed Model 5 Vega Special, serial number 619, registered NR496M, and owned by Powell Crosley, Jr. He had named the airplane The New Cincinnati.
Built by the Lockheed Aircraft Company, Burbank, California, the Vega was a single-engine high-wing monoplane with fixed landing gear. It was flown by a single pilot and could be configured to carry four to six passengers.
The Lockheed Vega was a very state-of-the-art aircraft for its time. The prototype flew for the first time 4 July 1927 at Mines Field, Los Angeles, California. It used a streamlined monocoque fuselage made of molded plywood. The wing and tail surfaces were fully cantilevered, requiring no bracing wires or struts to support them. The fuselage was molded laminated plywood monocoque construction and the wing was cantilevered wood.
The Model 5 Vega is 27 feet, 6 inches (8.382 meters) long with a wingspan of 41 feet (12.497 meters) and overall height of 8 feet, 2 inches (2.489 meters). Its empty weight is 2,595 pounds (1,177 kilograms) and gross weight is 4,500 pounds (2,041 kilograms).
Nichols’ airplane was powered by an air-cooled, supercharged 1,343.804-cubic-inch-displacement (22.021 liter) Pratt & Whitney Wasp C, a nine-cylinder radial engine with a compression ratio of 5.25:1. It was rated at 420 horsepower at 2,000 r.p.m. at Sea Level. The engine drove a two-bladed controllable-pitch Hamilton Standard propeller through direct drive. The Wasp C was 3 feet, 6.63 inches (1.083 meters) long, 4 feet, 3.44 inches (1.307 meters) in diameter and weighed 745 pounds (338 kilograms).
Ruth Nichols with Walter D. Wood, National Aeronautic Association, who is holding the sealed barograph after setting FAI World Altitude Record. (FAI)
Flying the Vega, Ruth Nichols also set records for speed between New York and Los Angeles. NR496M was damaged beyond repair at Floyd Bennett Field, 11 April 1931.
“Ruth Nichols was the only woman to hold simultaneously the women’s world speed, altitude, and distance records for heavy landplanes. She soloed in a flying boat and received her pilot’s license after graduating from Wellesley College in 1924, becoming the first woman in New York to do so. Defying her parents wishes to follow the proper life of a young woman, in January 1928 she flew nonstop from New York City to Miami with Harry Rogers in a Fairchild FC-2. The publicity stunt brought Nichols fame as “The Flying Debutante” and provided headlines for Rogers’ airline too. Sherman Fairchild took note and hired Nichols as a northeast sales manager for Fairchild Aircraft and Engine Corporation. She helped to found the Long Island Aviation Country Club, an exclusive flying club and participated in the 19,312-kilometer (12,000-mile) Sportsman Air Tour to promote the establishment of clubs around the country. She was also a founder of Sportsman Pilot magazine. Nichols set several women’s records in 1931, among them a speed record of 339.0952 kph (210.704 mph), an altitude record of 8,760 meters (28,743 feet), and a nonstop distance record of 3182.638 kilometers (1,977.6 miles). Her hopes to become the first woman to fly the Atlantic Ocean were dashed by two crashes of a Lockheed Vega in 1931, in which she was severely injured, and again in 1932. In 1940, Nichols founded Relief Wings, a humanitarian air service for disaster relief that quickly became an adjunct relief service of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) during World War II. Nichols became a lieutenant colonel in the CAP. After the war she organized a mission in support of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and became an advisor to the CAP on air ambulance missions. In 1958, she flew a Delta Dagger at 1,609 kph (1,000 mph) at an altitude of 15,544 meters (51,000 feet). A Hamilton variable pitch propeller (which allowed a pilot to select a climb or cruise position for the blades), from her Lockheed Vega is displayed in the Golden Age of Flight gallery. Nichols’ autobiography is titled Wings for Life.”
— Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum, Women In Aviation and Space History, The Golden Age of Flight.
Ruth Nichols with the Lockheed Model 5 Vega Special. (National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution)
Amelia Earhart with her Lockheed Vega 5C, NR965Y, at Wheeler Field, Oahu, Hawaii, 11 January 1935. (Getty Images/Underwood Archives)
11 January 1935: At 4:40 p.m., local time, Amelia Earhart departed Wheeler Field on the island of Oahu, Territory of Hawaii, for Oakland Municipal Airport at Oakland, California, in her Lockheed Vega 5C Special, NR965Y. She arrived 18 hours, 15 minutes later. Earhart was the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to the Mainland.
(This Vega was not the same aircraft which she used to fly the Atlantic, Vega 5B NR7952, and which is on display at the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum.)
Built by the Lockheed Aircraft Company, the Model 5 Vega is a single-engine high-wing monoplane designed by John Knudsen (“Jack”) Northrop and Gerrard Vultee. It was a very state-of-the-art aircraft for its time. It used a streamlined monocoque fuselage made of spiral strips of vertical grain spruce pressed into concrete molds and held together with glue. The wing and tail surfaces were fully cantilevered, requiring no bracing wires or struts to support them.
The techniques used to build the Vega were very influential in aircraft design. It also began Lockheed’s tradition of naming its airplanes after stars or other astronomical objects.
Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Vega 5C, NR965Y, being run up at Wheeler Field, 11 January 1935. Amelia is sitting on the running board of the Standard Oil truck parked in front of the hangar. (Hawaii Aviation)
Lockheed Model 5C Vega serial number 171 was completed in March 1931, painted red with silver trim, and registered NX965Y. The airplane had been ordered by John Henry Mears. Mears did not take delivery of the new airplane and it was then sold to Elinor Smith. It was resold twice before being purchased by Amelia Earhart in December 1934.
The Lockheed Model 5C Vega is 27 feet, 6 inches (8.382 meters) long with a wingspan of 41 feet (12.497 meters) and overall height of 8 feet, 2 inches (2.489 meters). Its empty weight is 2,595 pounds (1,177 kilograms) and gross weight is 4,500 pounds (2,041 kilograms).
Earhart’s Vega 5C was powered by an air-cooled, supercharged, 1,343.804-cubic-inch-displacement (22.021 liter) Pratt & Whitney Wasp C, serial number 2849, a single-row, nine cylinder, direct-drive radial engine with a compression ratio of 5.25:1. The Wasp C was rated at 420 horsepower at 2,000 r.p.m. at Sea Level, burning 58-octane gasoline. It was 3 feet, 6.63 inches (1.083 meters) long with a diameter of 4 feet, 3.44 inches (1.307 meters) and weighed 745 pounds (338 kilograms).
The standard Model 5C had a cruise speed of 165 miles per hour (266 kilometers per hour) and maximum speed of 185 miles per hour (298 kilometers per hour). The service ceiling was 15,000 feet (4,570 meters) and range in standard configuration was 725 miles (1,167 kilometers).
“Before parting with her ‘little red bus’ (as she affectionately called it), Amelia removed the upgraded Wasp engine and substituted an obsolete model; she wanted her well-tried engine for the new airplane, also a Lockheed Vega. It was a later model, in which Elinor Smith had been preparing to be the first woman to fly the Atlantic, a plan abandoned after Amelia successfully took that record. It was originally built to exacting specifications for Henry Mears of New York, who had a round-the-world flight in mind. Called the Vega, Hi-speed Special, it carried the registration 965Y and was equipped with special fuel tanks, radio, and streamlined landing gear and cowling. These latter appointments, together with a Hamilton Standard Controllable-Pitch Propeller, gave the plane a speed of 200 mph and Amelia had her eye on further records as well as her constant journeys across the continent.”
— The Sound of Wings by Mary S. Lovell, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1989, Chapter 17 at Page 206.
Crowds of spectators greet Amelia Earhart on her arrival at Oakland, California, from Hawaii, 12 January 1935. (Associated Press)
“. . . At Oakland Airport a good ten thousand had been waiting for several hours, yet when she came in she surprised them. They had been craning their necks looking for a lone aircraft flying high and obviously seeking a place to land. But Amelia did not even circle the field; she brought the Vega in straight as an arrow at a scant two hundred feet, landing at 1:31 p.m. Pacific time. The crowd set up a roar, broke through the police lines, and could be halted only when dangerously near the still-whirling propeller. From the road circling the airport, a chorus of automobile horns honked happily.”
— Amelia: The Centennial Biography of an Aviation Pioneer by Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon, Brassey’s, Washington and London, 1997, Chapter 13 at Page 132.
Amelia Earhart stands in the cockpit of her Lockheed Model 5C Vega, NR965Y, on arrival at Oakland Municipal Airport, 12 January 1935. (National Geographic/Corbis)
Amelia Earhart sold the Vega in 1936. It appeared in “Wings in the Dark,” (Paramount Pictures, 1935), and “Border Flight,” (Paramount Pictures, 1936) which starred Frances Farmer, John Howard and Robert Cummings. It changed hands twice more before being destroyed in a hangar fire 26 August 1943.
Lockheed Model 5C Vega NR965Y, on the set of a motion picture production, “Border Flight,” (Paramount, 1936). The woman to left of center is Frances Farmer. Roscoe Karns, who performed in both movies, is at center. (San Diego Air and Space Museum)
President Coolidge awards the Medal of Honor to 1st Lieutenant Christian Frank Schilt, United States Marine Corps, during a ceremony held on the lawn of the White House, Washington, D.C., 9 June 1928. (National Archives and Records Administration)
The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in present the Medal of Honor to
FIRST LIEUTENANT CHRISTIAN F. SCHILT
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS
for service as set forth in the following
CITATION:
For extraordinary heroism while serving with Marine Observation Squadron 7/M (VO-7M) in action during the progress of an insurrection at Quilali, Nicaragua, 6, 7, and 8 January 1928, Lieutenant Schilt, then a member of a Marine Expedition which had suffered severe losses in killed and wounded, volunteered under almost impossible conditions to evacuate the wounded by air, and transport a relief commanding officer to assume charge of a very serious situation. First Lieutenant Schilt bravely undertook this dangerous and important task and, by taking off a total of 10 times in the rough, rolling street of a partially burning village, under hostile infantry fire on each occasion, succeeded in accomplishing his mission, thereby actually saving three lives and bringing supplies and aid to others in desperate need.
Medal of Honor, United States Navy and Marine Corps, 1919–1942. This version is called the “Tiffany Cross.” (U.S. Navy)
In 1926, civil war broke out in Nicaragua. United States Marines were sent in to establish a protected sector for American citizens who were in the country (this is known as the Second Nicaraguan Campaign). First Lieutenant Schilt, a Naval Aviator since 1919, was assigned to an observation squadron at Managua in November 1927. On 6 January 1928, rebel soldiers ambushed to U.S. Marine patrols at the village of Quilali. The Marines were cut off, unable to be re-supplied or to have the wounded men evacuated. Lieutenant Schilt volunteered to fly into the village and land on a road, carrying supplies and flying the wounded men out. Conditions were difficult, with low clouds, surrounding mountains and hostile gunfire on landing and takeoff.
First Lieutenant Christian F. Schilt, United States Marine Corps, with his Chance Vought O2U-1 Corsair, Bu. No. A7529. (U.S. Navy)
Over three days, Schilt made ten flights, bringing out 18 wounded Marines and flying in a replacement commander and badly-needed medical supplies. To make a landing strip on the village’s rough, rolling, main street, the Marines on the ground had to burn and level part of the town, and since the plane had no brakes they had to stop it by dragging from its wings as soon as it touched down.
Chance Vought O2U-1 Corsair, Bu. No. A7575
The Chance Vought O2U-1 Corsair was a two-seat, single-engine single-bay biplane used for reconnaissance. It was 24 feet, 8 inches (7.519 meters) long with a wingspan of 34 feet, 6 inches (10.516 meters) and height of 10 feet, ½ inch (3.060 meters). It had an empty weight of 2,342 pounds (1,062.3 kilograms) and gross weight of 3,635 pounds (1,648.8 kilograms).
The 02U-1 was powered by an air-cooled, supercharged, 1,343.804-cubic-inch-displacement (22.021 liter) Pratt & Whitney Wasp C (R-1340-88) 9-cylinder radial engine with a compression ratio of 5.25:1. This was a direct drive engine, rated at 450 horsepower at 2,100 r.p.m, at Sea Level.
The O2U-1 had a maximum speed of 151 miles per hour (243 kilometers per hour) at Sea Level. Its service ceiling was 22,500 feet (6,858 meters) and the maximum range was 880 miles (1,416 kilometers) at cruise speed.
Chance Vought O2U-1 Corsair Bu. No. A 7937 was flown at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory to test engine cowling designs. It was the third from last O2U-1 built. (NASA)
Armament consisted of two fixed .30-caliber Browning machine guns, and one or two .30-caliber Lewis machine guns on a flexible mount in the aft cockpit.
Vought produced 291 O2U Corsairs between 1926 and 1930.
1st Lieutenant Christian Frank Schilt, United States Marine Corps. (U.S. Navy)
Christian Frank Schilt had a long career in the United States Marine Corps, beginning as an enlisted man with the first American military aviation unit sent overseas during World War I. After becoming a Naval Aviator and commissioned officer, he served for several years in the Carribean and Central American campaigns, before being assigned as chief test pilot at the Naval Aircraft Factory.
Captain Christian Frank Schilt, United States Marine Corps, at Quantico, Virginia, 19 July 1937. (Smithsonian Institution)
During World War II, Schilt served as chief of staff of the 1st Marine Air Wing at Guadalcanal, then commanded Marine Aircraft Group 11, commanding all Marine Corps aviation units during the Guadalcanal and Solomon Islands campaigns. He returned to the United States as commander MCAS Cherry Point.
General Schilt commanded the 9th and 2nd Marine Aviation Wings in the Pacific, and during the Korean War, he commanded the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing.
He next served as Commanding General, Aircraft, Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, and then as Director of Aviation at Headquarters Marine Corps.
Lieutenant General Schilt retired 1 April 1957 after forty years of service. Because of his distinguished combat career, he was promoted to the rank of General.
General Shilt was awarded the Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star Medal, Air Medal with Gold Stars (five awards), the Presidential Unit Citation Ribbon with Bronze Star (two awards).
General Schilt died 8 January 1987 at the age of 91 years.
Lieutenant General Christian Frank Schilt, United States Marine Corps (1895–1987)
Ruth Rowland Nichols (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale 12430–1)
24–25 October 1931: Ruth Rowland Nichols set a new Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) World Record for Distance in a Straight Line Without Landing when she flew from Oakland Municipal Airport, Oakland, California, to Bowman Field, Louisville, Kentucky. The official distance credited by the FAI was 3 182.65 kilometers (1,977.61 stature miles).¹
Flying a Lockheed Model 5 Vega Special, serial number 619, registered NR496M, Ruth Nichols took off from Oakland at 5:17:30 p.m., Pacific Standard Time (01:17:30 UTC), 24 October, after a takeoff roll of approximately 2,500 feet (762 meters). Present to observe her flight were National Aeronautic Association officials R. W. St. John and Eddie Cooper.
Her route took her to Reno, Nevada, where she was reported overhead at 6:35 p.m.; Salt Lake City, Utah, at 9:57 p.m.; and Cheyenne, Wyoming at 12:07 a.m., 25 October.
The flight had been in good weather until she passed Chicago, Illinois. Then with low ceilings and high winds, she was blown off course. After another hour, she decided to land at Louisville, Kentucky, to refuel. At 9:40 a.m., Central Standard Time (15:40 UTC), 25 October, she landed at Bowman Field, (now known as Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, LOU). Her flight took 14 hours, 23 minutes.
Nichols’ record broke the previous record which had been set by Maryse Bastié (née Marie-Louise Bombec) of 2 976,91 kilometers (1,849.77 statute miles), 29 June 1931, when she flew from Paris, France to Yurino, Mari Autonomous Oblast, USSR.²
Ruth Rowland Nichols with the Crossley Radio Corporation’s Lockheed Vega 1 NR496M, serial number 619, which she had named “Akita.” (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale)
The Pomona Progress Bulletin had reported on 20 October that a shipment of 648 gallons of special aviation gasoline, along with 36 gallons of oil, consigned to Nichols, had arrived at Oakland from Baltimore, Maryland. There was speculation in several newspapers that she would fly from Oakland to Honolulu, Hawaii.
The Scranton Republican reported:
Society Flier Hangs Up New Distance Mark
Ruth Nichols Claims Record held by Frenchwoman Following Hop Of Over 2,000 Miles
LOUISVILLE, Ky., Oct. 25 (AP)—Ruth Nichols, Rye, N. Y., aviatrix who left Oakland, Ca., last night on a projected nonstop flight to New York, landed at Bowman field here at 9:40 a .m. today. Officials at the airport said she evidently had lost her way.
Although some distance from the end of her flight, the aviatrix apparently had achieved her goal, a new distance record for women. Airport officials said they were positive she had flown more than 2,000 miles, although the sealed instruments of the plane had not been examined. The air mileage from Oakland to Louisville is approximately 2,000 miles in a direct line.
Takes Off Today
The present woman’s distance record of 1.810 miles is held by Maryse Bastie, French woman.
Miss Nichols planned to refuel here and proceed to New York in the morning.
NEW YORK, Oct. 25 (AP) — Ruth Nichols, society aviatrix, Rye, N. Y., landed at Louisville, Ky., at 11 a. m. today, having flown from Oakland, Cal., somewhat more than 2,000 miles. In a long distance telephone message to her mother, at Floyd Bennett field here, she said she had said a new women’s distance record.
Miss Nichols left Oakland at 8:17:30 p.m. (E. S. T.) yesterday.
She planned to reach Floyd Bennett field tomorrow morning.
The world’s distance flight for women at which Miss Nichols aimed was established June 30, last, by Mlle. Maryse Bastie, Paris flyer,who flew from the French capital across southern Europe into Russia, a distance of 1,810 miles.
LOUISVILLE, Ky., Oct. 25 (AP) — Ruth Nichols, who landed at Bowman field here today, plans to leave early Monday morning for New York, officials at the airport said. Miss Nichols was reported resting at the home of a friend.
Breaking aviation records is nothing new to Miss Nichols. She already has established women’s records for a one-stop transcontinental flight, altitude and speed.
She set the transcontinental mark in a flight from Los Angeles to New York, Dec. 10, 1930, with a stop at Wichita, Kans. Her time for the 2,300 miles coast-to-coast flight was 13 hours, 21 minutes and 43 seconds.
Holds Altitude Mark
Her plane is credited with flying to a height of 28,743 feet last March 6, at Jersey City to create a women’s altitude record. He altimeter showed a height of 30,064 feet, but the national aeronautic association, in approving the new mark, fixed the height at the lower figure.
The following month—April 13—Miss Nichols flew more than 210 miles an hour at Detroit for a new women’s speed record.
Miss Nichols was severely injured June 22, when she damaged her plane in landed at St. John, N. B.,preliminary to a transatlantic flight. She had flown from Floyd Bennett field in Brooklyn and while trying to land in the face of the sun misjudged her distance.
She was taken home a week later by airplane, the pilot being Clarence Chamberlin, transatlantic flier who had been Miss Nichols’ adviser in her aviation activities.
Her managers announced last month that she had definitely postponed another attempt at spanning the ocean because of unfavorable weather conditions.
—The Scranton Republican, Vol. 157, No. 22, 26 October 1931, Page 1, Column 6 and Page 2, Column 6
The following day, 26 October, Nichols was preparing to depart Louisville enroute to Floyd Bennett Field, New York. Leaking fuel caught fire while she was warming up the Vega’s engine. The Oakland Tribune reported:
RUTH NICHOLS ESCAPES AS PLANE BURNS
Society Girl on Flight From Oakland Leaps Out of Flaming Ship in Kentucky
Gasoline Catches Fire After ‘Record’ Hop; Plans for Atlantic Trip Revealed
Ruth Nichols’ monoplane, in which the aviatrix had just set an unofficial non-stop distance record for women in a flight from Oakland, was virtually destroyed by fire today at Louisville, Ky., according to dispatches received here.
The Aviatrix escaped by leaping from the cockpit and was pulled away from the blazing plane by mechanics. She was not injured.
The plane burst into flames as the society girl aviatrix was warming up the motor by taxiing the ship over the turf preparatory to taking off for New York.
Spectators saw a burst of flame from gasoline pouring out of a valve and mechanics shouted to Miss Nichols to cut off the motor. She said she was unable to hear their voices but knew from their gestures that something was wrong and closed the throttle before leaping from the ship.
Field attendants armed with extinguishers succeeded in putting out the fire.
VALVE RELEASED AND LETS OUT GASOLINE.
Attendants at the field said they believed a dump valve had been released by the vibration of the motor as Miss Nichols was warming up the ship and that in some manner not determined the fuel flowing from the valve had been ignited.
Miss Nichols was bespattered with liquid from the fire extinguishers. She said she was not frightened and would be in the air again as soon as she could get another plane. She estimated the loss at $10,000, explaining that the plane cost $25,000 but the motor and other parts could be salvaged.She said she would remain to supervise dismantling the ship for reconstruction if the factory so desired.
The dump valve, she said, had given her some trouble in California but she had had a new one installed before starting.
Miss Nichols landed at Bowman field, Louisville, at 7:40 a. m. yesterday, approximately 14 hours after leaving the Oakland airport in an attempt to set a new woman’s non-stop distance record.
She and airport attendants were confident that she had achieved her goal, estimating the distance from Louisville to Oakland at 2000 miles and pointing out that the course flown by Miss Nichols was even longer. The official women’s distance record is 1810 miles held by Maryse Bastie, of France.
The barograph from Miss Nichols’ ship, sealed here before she took off, was removed at Louisville for shipment to the bureau of aeronautics at Washington for computation.
LOW CEILING, WINDS BLEW HER OFF COURSE.
The aviatrix said she had a “fine trip” from Oakland to Chicago but then encountered a low ceiling and winds which blew her from her course.
“Wandering around used up lots of gasoline and I decided to land and refuel,” Miss Nichols said. “I flew around about an hour trying to get my bearings.”
Miss Nichols spent the night at the home of Lieutenant Albert M. Moody and this morning telephoned to Clarence Chamberlain to meet her at Floyd Bennett airport in New York “to have a sundae.”
The mishap today was the second the aviatrix has experienced in recent months. Last summer she wrecked her ship at St. John, N. B., on the first leg of projected Atlantic flight and suffered several broken vertebrae. For a long time she wore a plaster cast and now wears a steel corset to protect her injured spine.
PLANS STILL CONSIDERED FOR ATLANTIC FLIGHT.
Dispatches from Louisville said Miss Nichols apparently had not given up her plans for an Atlantic flight although she said she did not care to “talk about plans I might not be able to carry out.”
“Possibly I will attempt the flight next summer,” she said. “I feel sure that I can make it and have absolutely no fear. The main obstacle to success is the wear and tear on nerves and body. While considerable skill is required, endurance is the more important qualification.”
Ruth Nichols’ Lockheed Vega. (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale 12340–2)
Nichols’ airplane was a 1928 Lockheed Model 5 Vega Special, serial number 619, registered NR496M, and owned by Powell Crosley, Jr.
Built by the Lockheed Aircraft Company, Burbank, California, the Vega was a single-engine high-wing monoplane with fixed landing gear. It was flown by a single pilot in an open cockpit and could be configured to carry four to six passengers.
The Lockheed Vega was a very state-of-the-art aircraft for its time. The prototype flew for the first time 4 July 1927 at Mines Field, Los Angeles, California. It used a streamlined monocoque fuselage made of molded plywood. The wing and tail surfaces were fully cantilevered, requiring no bracing wires or struts to support them.
The Model 5 Vega is 27 feet, 6 inches (8.382 meters) long with a wingspan of 41 feet (12.497 meters) and overall height of 8 feet, 2 inches (2.489 meters). Its empty weight is 2,595 pounds (1,177 kilograms) and gross weight is 4,500 pounds (2,041 kilograms).
Nichols’ airplane was powered by an air-cooled, supercharged 1,343.804-cubic-inch-displacement (22.021 liter) Pratt & Whitney Wasp C nine-cylinder radial engine with a compression ratio of 5.25:1. It was rated at 420 horsepower at 2,000 r.p.m. at Sea Level, burning 58-octane gasoline. The engine drove a two-bladed controllable-pitch Hamilton Standard propeller through direct drive. The Wasp C was 3 feet, 6.63 inches (1.083 meters) long, 4 feet, 3.44 inches (1.3-7 meters) in diameter and weighed 745 pounds (338 kilograms).
The standard Vega 5 had a cruising speed of 165 miles per hour (266 kilometers per hour) and maximum speed of 185 miles per hour (298 kilometers per hour). The service ceiling was 15,000 feet (4,572 meters). Range with standard fuel tanks was 725 miles (1,167 kilometers).
NR496M was destroyed by fire at Louisville, Kentucky 26 October 1931. The registration was cancelled in 1933.
Hugh Herndon, Jr., (left) and Clyde Pangborn in the cockpit of Miss Veedol, just before takeoff at Sabashiro Beach, Misawa, Honshu, Japan, 3 October 1931. (Aviation Museum)
3–5 October 1931: At 6:01 a.m., local time, 4 October (21:01, 3 October, Greenwich Mean Time), Clyde Edward Pangborn and Hugh Herndon, Jr., flying their Bellanca Skyrocket, Miss Veedol, took off from Sabashiro Beach, on the northern coast of the island of Honshu, Japan. Their destination was Seattle, Washington, 5,500 miles (8,851 kilometers) across the North Pacific Ocean.
Pangborn and Herndon had been on an around-the-world flight, attempting to better the time recently set by Wiley Post and Harold Gatty. The flight was sponsored by Herndon and his mother, Alice Carter Herndon, heiress to the Tide Water Oil Company. Tide Water was the producer of the Veedol line of motor oils and lubricants, so the airplane was named Miss Veedol for public relations purposes.
Delays while traversing the Soviet Union made it impossible to beat the Post/Gatty record time, however, so the pair flew on to Japan, hoping to win prize money offered by several organizations for the first Transpacific flight. They landed in Japan on 8 August, and because they had done so without authorization, were held under house arrest for seven weeks.
Miss Veedol, a Bellanca CH-400 Skyrocket, NR796W, circa 1931. (Granville Oil)
On takeoff, Miss Veedol was seriously overloaded, carrying a reported 915 gallons (3,464 liters) of gasoline and 45 gallons (170 liters) of engine oil. Miss Veedol had been modified by Pangborn so that its landing gear could be dropped, reducing weight by approximately 300 pounds (136 kilograms). The decreased aerodynamic drag resulted in an increase in the airplane’s speed of approximately 15 miles per hour (24 kilometers per hour). Dropping the landing gear would require a belly landing at the destination, however.
When it was time to jettison the landing gear, the mechanism failed, leaving two struts still attached to the airplane. Clyde Pangborn had to go outside the cockpit to remove them.
Pangborn and Herndon flew a Great Circle Course, and the first land that they encountered was Dutch Harbor, at the outer tip of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.
The Pacific Northwest was shrouded in rain and fog, so the flyers changed their destination from Seattle to Boise, Idaho. Eventually, however, they decided to land at Wenatachee in eastern Washington State.
At 7:14 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, (14:14 G.M.T.), 5 October (they had crossed the International Date Line), Clyde Pangborne flew Miss Veedol onto the ground at Fancher Field, about 5 miles (8 kilometers) northwest of Wenatchee. The total duration of their flight was 41 hours, 13 minutes (1 day, 18 hours, 13 minutes).
The airplane was slightly damaged in the belly landing but was later repaired.
Miss Veedol after belly-landing at Fancher Field, near Wenatchee, Washington, 5 October 1931. (Unattributed)
For their accomplishment, Pangborn and Herndon were awarded the the White Medal of Merit of the Imperial Aeronautical Society by Consul General Kensuke Horinouchi. The presentation took place at the Japanese consulate on 21 November 1931. The United States National Aeronautic Association awarded the two men its 1931 National Harmon Trophy.
Hugh Herndon, Jr. (left) and Clyde Edward Pangborne, with the damaged Miss Veedol, 5 October 1931. (Frank Kubo Collection, Densho Digital Repository)
Miss Veedol was a 1931 Bellanca Aircraft Corporation of America CH-400 Skyrocket,¹ serial number 3004, registered NR796W. The CH-400 was a single-engine, high-wing monoplane with fixed landing gear. It was flown by a single pilot and could carry up to five passengers. The CH-400 was 27 feet, 10 inches (8.484 meters) long with a wingspan of 46 feet, 4 inches (14.122 meters) and height of 8 feet, 4 inches (2.540 meters). The standard airplane had an empty weight of 2,592 pounds (1,176 kilograms) and gross weight of 4,600 pounds (2,087 kilograms). Its fuel capacity was 120 gallons (454 liters). Miss Veedol had been modified to carry 620 gallons (2,347 liters) of fuel.
The CH-400 was powered by an air-cooled, supercharged 1,343.804-cubic-inch-displacement (22.021 liter) Pratt & Whitney Wasp C nine cylinder, direct-drive radial engine. The Wasp C was rated at 420 horsepower at 2,000 r.p.m. at Sea Level.² It was 3 feet, 6.63 inches (1.083 meters) long, 4 feet, 3.44 inches (1.307 meters) in diameter, and weighed 745 pounds (338 kilograms).
The production Skyrocket had a cruise speed of 130 miles per hour (209 kilometers per hour), and maximum speed of 155 miles per hour (249 kilometers per hour). Its service ceiling was 20,000 feet (6,096 meters) and the normal range was 750 miles (1,207 kilometers).
Bellanca built 32 CH-400 Skyrockets.
Miss Veedol was repaired and then sold to American Medical Researches, Inc., of New York City. It was repainted and renamed The American Nurse. While on a planned non-stop New York to Rome flight, 13 September 1932, NR796W disappeared. It was last sighted by the crew of S.S. Winnebago, an Anglo-American Oil Company bulk oil carrier, approximately 900 miles (1,448 kilometers) east of New York, at 11:50 p.m., British Summer Time, on the 13th. The pilot, two passengers, and a groundhog (Marmota monax) named Tailwind, were never seen again.
Clyde Edward Pangborn. (James J. Kriegsmann, New York)
Clyde Pangborn was one of the best-known aviators of the Interwar Period. Clyde Edward Pangborn was born 28 October 1894 ³ in Douglas County, Washington. He was the second son of Max Judson Pangborn and Francis Ola Lamb Pangborn, a dressmaker. During his early 20s, Pangborn was employed as a surveyor for the B. H. & S. Smelter at Kellogg, Idaho.
Pangborn enlisted as a Private, United States Army, 11 June 1918. He was trained as a pilot and, on completion, was commissioned a second lieutenant, Air Service, Signal Officers Reserve Corps. He was assigned as a flight instructor at Ellington Field, southeast of Houston, Texas. While in the Air Service, Pangborn taught himself to fly an airplane inverted for extended periods, earning himself the nick-name, “Upside-Down Pangborn.” After the Armistice brought World War I to a close, Second Lieutenant Pangborn was released from service and honorably discharged, 21 May 1919.
Through the 1920s, Pangborn was a “barnstormer,” flying demonstrations and performing stunts (such as “wing walking”) and giving rides. Major Gregory Boyington, United States Marine Corps, took his very first flight in an airplane with Clyde Pangborn as the pilot.
On 22 October 1934, Clyde Pangborn was commissioned as a lieutenant, United States Naval Reserve (Special Service). He held this commission until his death.
Clyde Pangborne married the French actress, Mlle. Jisele A. Duval (also known by her stage name, Swana Beaucaire) at Southampton, England, February 1938. They had met two years earlier when he pulled her out of a snow bank in Switzerland. They were divorced at Reno, Nevada, 3 April 1944.
During the early years of World War II, Pangborn worked for the Clayton Knight Committee, recruiting unemployed American pilots for the the Royal Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force. He then joined the R.A.F. Transport Command as a civilian pilot. Captain Pangborne ferried aircraft and equipment across the Atlantic from Canada to the United Kingdom. He made approximately 175 Transatlantic flights.
In August 1942, Pangborn flew an Avro Lancaster Mk.I, R5727, across the North Atlantic to be used as a pattern aircraft for Canadian Lancaster production. Though the Lancaster was considered to be a very long-range bomber, a fuel stop was required at Gander. Pangborn flew the Lancaster around Canada and the United States, allowing aeronautical engineers and military personnel to examine the four-engine British bomber.
Avro Lancaster Mk.I R5727 over Montreal, 1942. (Royal Air Force)
Following World War II, Pangborn was awarded the King’s Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom by His Majesty, George VI.
Clyde Edward Pangborn died 29 March 1958, at Manhattan, New York City, at the age of 63 years. He was buried with military honors at the Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia.
Hugh Herndon Jr., was born at Titusville, Pennsylvania, 3 October 1899. He was the son of Hugh Herndon, Sr., an attorney, and Alice Carter Herndon.
Herndon married Miss Mary Ellen Farley at New York, 14 June 1931. He famously “rescued her from possible death in the tentacles of a large octopus,” at Sandy Key Island in the Bahamas, 15 January 1932. They divorced in 1948. Herndon then married Ruth D. Claiborne, 22 November 1948.
Herndon was an operations manager for Trans World Airlines, based in Cairo, Egypt. He died at his residence at Zamelek, at 10:00 p.m., 4 April 1952. He was cremated and his remains turned over to Mrs. Herndon.
¹ Some sources describe NR796W as a “CH-300 J.” It was registered by the Aeronautics Branch, United States Department of Commerce, as a “CH400 Skyrocket.”
² The Pratt & Whitney Wasp C was also used by the U.S. Army and Navy, designated R-1340-7. In military service, it was rated at 450 horsepower at 2,100 r.p.m. at Sea Level.
³ Washington State Department of Health Birth Index.
