Miss Veedol

This monument in Misawa commemorates the flight of Miss Veedol.

The Miss Veedol was the first airplane to fly non-stop across the Pacific Ocean. On October 5, 1931, Clyde Pangborn with co-pilot Hugh Herndon crash-landed the plane in the hills of East Wenatchee, Washington, in the central part of the state. and they became the first men to fly non-stop across the northern Pacific Ocean. The 41 hour flight from Sabishiro Beach, Misawa, Aomori Prefecture, Japan won them the 1931 Harmon Trophy, symbolizing the greatest achievement in flight for that year.^[1]

Aircraft

Miss Veedol was a 1931 Bellanca Skyrocket J-400 Long-Distance Special, registration NR796W.^[2]. It was built at Bellanca Airfield in New Castle, Delaware. It could carry 800 gallons of fuel.^{[citation needed]} Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon modified Miss Veedol while being held in Japan - on unfounded suspicions of spying - to be able to carry more fuel, and to be able to jettison their landing gear. The Miss Veedol carried an initial load of 915 gallons of aviation gasoline on her record-breaking flight.^[3]

Since there was an American brand of lubricating motor oil named "Veedol" back then,^{[citation needed]} there seems to be some connection and Miss Veedol was named for that. It is unclear as to whether the Veedol company partially sponsored the aviation endeavors of Herndon & Pangborn.

Background to the flight

Herndon and Pangborn had been trying to set a speed record for a round-the-world flight, but while after a rough landing in Khabarovsk, Russia, they realised that they could not better the record set the previous year by Wiley Post and Harold Gatty. Looking for a worthwhile aviation record to set, they decided to modify Miss Veedol to make the first non-stop trans-Pacific flight, for which the Asahi Shimbun had offered a $50,000 prize.^[4]

Flight

Loaded to well beyond the manufacturer's maximum operating weight, the Miss Veedol only barely managed to take off from a specially prepared area of Sabishiro Beach. The landing gear was jettisoned as planned, three hours after take-off, but two supporting struts remained attached, making it necessary for Pangborn to climb out of the aircraft to remove them manually. Pangborn subsequently criticised Herndon for his alleged incompetence, both in allowing the engine to be starved of fuel and in flying further than their originally planned landing area while Pangborn was asleep. In the first case, the aircraft dived several thousand feet before the engine could be restarted.^[5]

Landing in America

Upon reaching the Pacific Northwest, they found that the weather was cloudy/rainy over most of the area. After scouting out several possible airfields in Washington and Oregon for landing - and finding them "socked in" by bad weather - Pangborn decided that conditions would be better near his home town of Wenatchee, which is in a dry area of central Washington.^[5] When they got there, they had to make a belly landing because they had disposed of Miss Veedol's landing gear over the western Pacific. She was damaged, but repairable, and her propeller was wrecked, but Herndon and Pangborn came through the landing all right.^[1]

As Herndon and his mother had been the main financial backers of the flight they kept almost all the prize money and the proceeds of sale of Miss Veedol.^[1] Pangborn and Herndon did not qualify for the $100,000 prize offered by the (Japanese) Imperial Aeronautics Association (which was limited to Japanese aviators) or the $28,000 prize offered by a group of Seattle businessmen (which was for a flight originating in Seattle and ending in Japan.)^[4] Pangborn received a mere $2,500 for his part in the flight and continued, much as before, as an airmail pilot, air racer, and a test and demonstration pilot.^[5]

Fate of aircraft

Main article: The American Nurse (aircraft)

Miss Veedol was later sold to a group of backers including one Dr. Leon Pisculli, who recruited pilot William Ulbrich and copilot Gladys Bramhall Wilner (13 August 1910—3 July 2009)^[6] for a record New York to Rome flight. Plans for the flight included a flyover of Florence, Italy, where Wilner was to parachute to the ground in honor of Florence Nightingale, as Wilner was a pilot, a nurse, and a parachute jumper (apparently the only such woman then in existence.) After Wilner dropped the project, a dancer Edna Newcomer replaced her. The Miss Veedol, renamed The American Nurse, departed Floyd Bennett Field for Rome in June, 1932 and was last seen by an ocean liner, 640km west of its intended landfall in Spain. It was never heard from again.

Gladys Wilner died at the age of 98 in Jacksonville, Florida; she was the last surviving person to have ever flown in Miss Veedol (as The American Nurse).^[7]

Commemorations

The Pangborn-Herndon Memorial Site is located north east of East Wenatchee; the main feature is a basalt column designed by Walter Graham. The site gives views of the Columbia River, the East Wenatchee and Wenatchee Valleys.^{[8] [9]}

In addition to the Miss Veedol replica in the Misawa Aviation and Science Museum, there was a somewhat cruder replica of Miss Veedol on display outdoors on Sabishiro Beach at 40° 44' 43.8" N 141° 24' 55.3" E. This replica did not survive the 11 March 2011 tsunami which caused widespread damage in the coastal area of Northeast Honshu.^{[citation needed]}

A flying replica of Miss Veedol was built over a period of 4 plus years by Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 424. This replica (also known as Spirit of Wenatchee first flew in May 2003. This aircraft is based at East Wenatchee, Washington.^{[10] [11]}

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon, Jr.: First to Fly Nonstop Across the Pacific (p 5)". Weider History Group. 2006. http://www.historynet.com/clyde-pangborn-and-hugh-herndon-jr-first-to-fly-nonstop-across-the-pacific.htm/5. Retrieved 2011-08-01. 
2. ^ "Bellanca". aerofiles.com. 2009. http://aerofiles.com/_bella.html. Retrieved 2011-08-01. 
3. ^ "Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon, Jr.: First to Fly Nonstop Across the Pacific (p 3)". Weider History Group. 2006. http://www.historynet.com/clyde-pangborn-and-hugh-herndon-jr-first-to-fly-nonstop-across-the-pacific.htm/3. Retrieved 2011-08-01. 
4. ^ ^{a b} "Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon, Jr.: First to Fly Nonstop Across the Pacific (p 1)". Weider History Group. 2006. http://www.historynet.com/clyde-pangborn-and-hugh-herndon-jr-first-to-fly-nonstop-across-the-pacific.htm/1. Retrieved 2011-08-01. 
5. ^ ^{a b c} "Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon, Jr.: First to Fly Nonstop Across the Pacific (p 4)". Weider History Group. 2006. http://www.historynet.com/clyde-pangborn-and-hugh-herndon-jr-first-to-fly-nonstop-across-the-pacific.htm/4. Retrieved 2011-08-01. 
6. ^ "Search for 'Gladys Wilner' on Social Security Death Index (via Rootsweb.com)". 2011-08-02. http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/. Retrieved 2011-08-02. 
7. ^ "Obituary: Gladys Bramhall Wilner". The Times-Union (Jacksonville, FL). 2009-07-08. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/timesunion/obituary.aspx?n=gladys-bramhall-wilner&pid=129379601. Retrieved 2 August 2011. 
8. ^ "Pangborn-Herndon Memorial Site--Aviation: From Sand Dunes to Sonic Booms: A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary". National Parks Service. 2008. http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/aviation/pan.htm. Retrieved 2011-08-01. 
9. ^ "Pangborn-Herndon Memorial Park - Eastmont Metropolitan Parks & Recreation, East Wenatchee, WA". Eastmont Metropolitan Parks & Recreation. http://www.eastmontparks.com/pangborn-herndon-memorial-park.shtml. Retrieved 2011-08-01. 
10. ^ "Spirit of Wenatchee, Home of the Miss Veedol". Spirit of Wenatchee (EAA Chapter 424 pilots). 2010. http://www.spiritofwenatchee.org/. Retrieved 2011-08-01. 
11. ^ "The Spirit of Wenatchee". North Central Washington Directory. http://ncwdirectory.com/listing/632. Retrieved 2011-08-01. 

• 

  Miss Veedol [replica in Misawa (Japan) Aviation and Science Museum]