Aviation | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

June 29, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

First Flight to Hawai‘i

Lieutenant Lester J Maitland (pilot) and Lieutenant Albert F Hegenberger (navigator) were selected to fulfill the Army’s dreams to successfully cross the Pacific Ocean to Hawai‘i.

Since 1919, Hegenberger tested every known navigation instrument and method, including regular “blind” flying tests and engineering of the equipment’s development. He completed a course of instruction in navigation at the Navy’s school at Pensacola in February, 1920.

Lieutenant Hegenberger was given responsibility to prepare the plane, including installation of special equipment, final arrangements of fuel system, engines, pumps and airborne facilities, among other requirements.

Because the navigator had to function as radio operator and pilot as well, a special passageway was provided between the front cockpit and the navigator’s cabin in the rear, necessitating the removal of one fuel tank.

Maitland and Hegenberger denied any interest in racing, prizes or “first” distinction. They felt the interest to link up Hawai‘i and the mainland by air was purely for the advancement of aviation, stating this flight would be a test of the navigation equipment Hegenberger and his Army unit had been developing for years.

Another stated objective of the long-range flight was to test the performance of the new radio beacon installed by the Army Signal Corps on the island of Maui and reaching to San Francisco.

Finally, it was felt that valuable data could be obtained for use in the establishment of regular commercial airline service over the route. Encouraging commercial aviation by the use of airways was the job of the military, they said; this flight fell in the Army’s peacetime mission.

Shortly after 7 am on June 28, 1927, the Army pair shook hands with their crews and climbed into positions in the airplane. Left behind were their parachutes, mandatory in the Army since 1922; they would be of little use in open seas.

At the 4,600-foot mark, and a speed of 93 mph, the huge plane lifted off the ground. At the 2,000 foot altitude, Maitland and Hegenberger passed over the Golden Gate then headed on the first course of the Great Circle to Maui, where the radio beacon was to tie in with the station in San Francisco.

For the first 500-miles they encountered strong crosswinds and after that a very strong tailwind which increased their airspeed to 108-mph. They flew close to the sea during daylight hours at an altitude of 300 feet.

They flew without incident until about half-way, at this point relaxing sufficiently to discover hunger pangs. Searching for food that was supposed to have been stowed aboard for them, none could be found by either flyer.

At 3:20 am, they saw the lighthouse on Kauai five degrees to the left of the plane’s nose. When they reached the shoreline, the island’s contour became familiar – one they knew well from past inter-island flights.

Oʻahu was 75-miles from Kauai; daybreak would not occur for about another hour. Maitland and Hegenberger chose not to jeopardize a successful completion to their flight by approaching mountainous Oʻahu in heavy clouds, rain and total darkness. They decided to circle Kauai until daybreak, slowing down to 65-mph.

Crossing the channel to Oʻahu at 750-feet, just below an unbroken cloud layer, their speed was boosted to 115-mph and soon they found themselves 500-feet over Schofield Barracks. Below them at Wheeler Field were thousands of people.

Maitland circled the field once for the anxious spectators then came to a landing at 6:29 am, June 29, 1927, 2,425-miles having been flown from California to Kauai in 23 hours. It was a total of 25-hours and 49-minutes when the three-engine plane touched down at Wheeler.

The flight was an unprecedented success.

The feat was hailed by the War Department and the press. The Honorable F Trubee Davison, Assistant Secretary of War, stated, “a new vista of communication between America and its overseas positions” had been opened by the Army, underscoring the progress made in aerial navigation. He went on, “The flight is unquestioningly one of the greatest of aerial accomplishments ever made.”

Davison was “particularly pleased that two Army Air Corps officers, operating an Army plane built for no other purpose than Regular Army use, were the first to negotiate the flight to Hawai‘i.” (Lots of info and images here from hawaii-gov.)

December 13, 2018 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Clippers

“From the earliest colonial days, ship-building has been a favorite industry in America. The first vessel built within the present limits of the United States was the Virginia, a pinnace of thirty tons, constructed in 1601 by the Popham colonists”.

In the year 1668, the ship-building in New England, small as it may now seem, had become sufficiently important … of 1332 vessels registered as built In New England between 1674 and 1714, no less than 239 were built and sold to merchants abroad.”

“(T)he American vessels showed a marked superiority in point of speed over British men-of-war and merchant ships during (the American Revolution and War of 1812)”. Then came the clipper ship.

“The origin of the word clipper is not quite clear, though it seems to be derived from the verb clip, which in former times meant, among other things, to run or fly swiftly.”

“The word survived in the New England slang expressions ‘to clip it’ and ‘going at a good clip,’ or ‘a fast clip,’ are familiar expressions there to this day.”

“It therefore seems reasonable to suppose that when vessels of a new model were built, which were intended, in the language of the times, to clip over the waves rather than plough through them, the improved type of craft become known as clippers because of their speed.” (Clark)

The Clipper ship, generally either a schooner or a brigantine, was a classic sailing ship of the 19th century, renowned for its beauty, grace, and speed.

“The Clipper Ship Era began in 1843 as a result of growing demand for a more rapid delivery of tea from China (and) continued under the stimulating influence of the discovery of gold in California and Australia in 1849 and 1851”. (Clark)

Fast forward, and a new clipper made the scene across the Pacific – the flying boat. The flying boat dominated international airline service in the 1920s and 1930s.

As airplane travel became popular, Pan American Airlines asked for a long-range, four-engine flying boat. Pan Am chief Juan Trippe called the airplanes ‘clippers’ to link his airline with the maritime heritage of the world’s great ocean liners. (Pacific Aviation Museum)

In October, 1931, Pan Am introduced the Sikorsky S-40, the first American Clipper. When it began to fly, record after record was broken for performance in the air. (Horvat)

At the beginning of the decade, flying across oceans was a life-risking experience. However, beginning in 1936, Pan Am began to fly across the Pacific. (Pacific Aviation Museum)

On November 22, 1935, Postmaster General James A Farley and Mr Juan Trippe ordered Pilot Musick, commanding Pan Am’s China Clipper, to take off on the first airmail flight, by way of Hawai‘i and the other islands, on to its Manila destination.

Twenty thousand spectators were on hand to watch festivities at Alameda (on San Francisco Bay), all eyes on the immense silver airplane. They saw an estimated 110,000 pieces of mail weighing nearly two tons being stowed on board. (hawaii-gov)

First to make the Pacific crossings by way of Hawaii and other islands, through the years Pan American steadily increased its world services.

The first Martin Clippers were augmented in 1941 by larger Boeing Clippers. On November 16, 1945, Pan Am resumed commercial operations with their Boeing Clippers which had been leased to the Navy during the war. (Horvat)

Passenger numbers on a clipper depended on fuel needs and cargo–air mail and packages had priority. Usually only eight or nine passengers (sometimes fewer) flew on the long mainland-Hawaii hop. The clippers flew one trip a week in each direction.

“Her interior was like that of no other airplane,” reported journalist H. R. Ekins. “Her lounge… would seat 16 persons comfortably, leaving plenty of space in which to walk about.” The seaplane seemed to him “as roomy as the [airship] Hindenburg and as steady as a rock.”

The main cabin also served as a dining room. “It was a conventional supper–grapefruit, celery and olives, soup, steak, vegetables, salad, ice cream, cake and coffee,” wrote passenger Charles McKew Parr. “The captain acted as though we were his guests.” (Smithsonian)

The first paying passengers of the Pan American Hawaii Clipper included: Richard F. Bradley, San Francisco; Mrs. Zetta Averill, Aberdeen, WA; TF Ryan, III, San Francisco; Alfred Bennet, Hightstown, NJ; Col. Charles Bradley, Chicago; Mrs. Clara Adams, Philadelphia; and Wilbur May, Los Angeles. (hawaii-gov)

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Pan American -California Clipper’ Honolulu-PP-1-5-001-1939

Sikorsky S-42 Clipper

Sikorsky S-40. The exposed struts and wires caused Charles Lindbergh to call the plane a ‘flying forest’

Pan American Clipper afloat off seaplane ramp on Ford Island, Pearl Harbor-PP-1-7-007-April 20, 1935

Pan American Clipper on ramp being fueled-PP-1-7-002-1935

Pan American Clipper flying over Waikiki with Diamond Head in background-PP-1-8-013-1935

Pan American Clipper in Middle Loch, Pearl Harbor-PP-1-8-015-1935

Pan American Clipper afloat off Ford Island, Pearl Harbor-PP-1-7-001-1935

Boeing 314 Dixie Clipper

Crowd inspecting the Pan American Clipper, Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, Honolulu-PP-1-7-011-April 20, 1935

Pan American Clipper in Pearl Harbor-PP-1-8-016-1935

Martin M-130 China Clipper

Flight deck of Boeing 314

B314-seat-map

Boeing 314 Flight Deck

B-314-cutaway-interior

Baltimore clipper Ann McKim

The clipper Flying Cloud

The clipper ship Le-Rye-Moon, built for the opium trade

October 23, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

First Flight

Elbert Tuttle would often say that the segregation cases were “the easiest cases I ever decided. The constitutional rights were so compelling, and the wrongs were so enormous.”

Tuttle, a Republican, was nominated on July 7, 1954, by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to a new Fifth Circuit seat; he was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 3, 1954 and received commission the next day.

It was Tuttle who, as chief judge of the federal appeals court covering the Deep South, ensured that the promise of the Supreme Court’s desegregation rulings became a reality. (Emanual)

By the time Tuttle became chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, he had already led an exceptional life.

He had cofounded a prestigious law firm, earned a Purple Heart in the battle for Okinawa in World War II, and led Republican Party efforts in the early 1950s to establish a viable presence in the South. But it was the intersection of Tuttle’s judicial career with the civil rights movement that thrust him onto history’s stage.

When Tuttle assumed the mantle of chief judge of the Fifth Circuit in 1960, six years had passed since Brown v. Board of Education had been decided but little had changed for black southerners.

In landmark cases relating to voter registration, school desegregation, access to public transportation, and other basic civil liberties, Tuttle’s determination to render justice and his swift, decisive rulings …

… neutralized the delaying tactics of diehard segregationists – including voter registrars, school board members, and governors – who were determined to preserve Jim Crow laws throughout the South. (Emanual)

But this story is about the teenage Tuttle and his brother Malcolm …

Bud Mars is credited as the first man to fly an airplane in Hawaii on December 31, 1910. But it was the Tuttle brothers who were the first to lift off the ground in a homemade glider.

Malcolm and Elbert Tuttle arrived in Honolulu on the SS Sierra, on September 23, 1907. They came with their father and mother, Guy and Margaret Tuttle. Before the boys were born, Guy Tuttle had worked in Washington, D.C. as a clerk in the War Department.

When an opportunity came for him to be transferred to California, to the Los Angeles area, he took it, and he worked there for the U.S. Immigration Service. The Tuttles lived in Pasadena where Malcolm was born on March 20, 1896 and Elbert on July 17, 1897. (Hylton)

The boys entered Punahou School, Elbert in the fifth and Malcolm in the sixth grades. That first year at Punahou gave Elbert a chance to prove how excellent a student he was and earned him the right to skip the sixth grade. Malcolm and Elbert were then to be in the same class through the rest of their school years.

After school let out that first summer, the Tuttle brothers learned how to surf. Their favorite place was Waikiki Beach. In the fall of 1909 the boys turned their attention from the water to the air.

Punahou allowed students to choose and area of study, and Malcolm and Elbert chose aviation. Using silk, bamboo, wire and an electric motor, they constructed a scale model of the Wright Brothers’ 1903 biplane.

Later, following a 1-page ‘How to Build a Practical Glider’ article in their mother’s ‘Woman’s Home Companion’ magazine, they built a forty-pound glider, fifteen feet long and eighteen feet across. Wooden supports separated two overlaid wings, and the lower wing had an opening with arm rests.

On Sunday, October 23, 1910, Elbert and Malcolm Tuttle, ages 13 and 14, carried their glider seven blocks up the street to the Kaimuki Crater, where along Reservoir Avenue the hills sloped into the wind.

Malcolm was ready to try out the new glider, Elbert took hold of the tail and held it up off the ground. Then Malcolm lifted the wings over his head and ran down the hill.

They thought that a long run would be necessary before the glider would fly, but they were wrong. After two or three steps, the aircraft jerked upwards, Elbert let go of the tail, and Malcolm lifted off the ground.

Malcolm’s first attempt to control the glider brought it down quickly. On Malcolm’s third try, he flew the glider ten feet into the air and 40 feet along the ground.

‘Honolulu’s First Bird-Men Take To The Air,’ announced a headline in the Pacific Commercial Advertiser on October 30, 1910. The first page article stated…

“The Tuttle brothers of Honolulu have become the contemporaries of the Wright Brothers of Dayton, Ohio, and their names will be perpetuated in history as the first aviators of the Hawaiian Islands.” (Hylton)

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Tuttles-MalcolmTuttleTakesToTheAir-First Flight

Tuttle Brothers with Scale Model of 1903 Wright Brothers Biplane-Hylton

October 4, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Flight of Miss Veedol

Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper offered $25,000 for the first nonstop transpacific flight; Clyde Edward Pangborn and Hugh Herndon, Jr accepted the challenge.

After wiring their New York office to arrange the proper flight clearance and Japanese landing papers, the two took off for Tokyo, assuming that they had the necessary documents to land in Japan.

En route Herndon took photographs with both a still and 16mm movie camera. Upon landing in Tokyo, they were arrested for having no papers and for photographing naval installations in northern Japan.

After considerable diplomatic wrangling, as well as several long sessions of intensive questioning by the police, Pangborn and Herndon were fined for their transgressions and released.

After reluctantly giving the Americans permission to attempt the trans-Pacific flight, the Japanese officials informed Pangborn that only one take-off attempt was to be allowed. If the first try failed, or the flyers were forced to return after takeoff, their plane would be impounded. (Arlington)

A few days before take off, Clyde, who had grown concerned about the planeʼs limited fuel supply, developed a plan to reduce the aircraftʼs weight and thereby increase its range. (Roberts)

Pangborn was not only an ace pilot, but an ace mechanic, as well. He hand-fashioned another fuel tank that held an additional 50-gallons to the forward belly of the plane.

The plane then held 915 gallons of fuel in seven tanks and 45 gallons of oil for a gross weight of about 9,000 lbs. This was three times the plane’s empty weight. He also modified the landing gear with pins that could be removed in flight to reduce drag. (Minnesota DOT)

The also removed the doors; the pilots climbed in through windows into a cramped cockpit. They carried no parachutes and no life raft – too much weight. For the same reason, they wore no boots, just heavy wool socks and “Japanese style coveralls.” They had no radio or electronic navigational aids, only a compass, and, at night, the North Star.

The flight was sponsored by Herndon and his mother, 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. (This Day in Aviation)

On October 4, 1931, 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.

Miss Veedol had also been modified by Pangborn so that its landing gear could be dropped, reducing weight by approximately 300 pounds.

The decreased aerodynamic drag resulted in an increase in the airplane’s speed of approximately 15 miles 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. Pangborn remedied this situation about halfway through the flight when he turned the controls over to Herndon and at 14,000 feet he crawled out onto the wing supports and freed the two landing gear struts. (Arlington)

Their destination was Seattle, Washington. They flew a Great Circle Course, and the first land that they encountered was Dutch Harbor, at the outer tip of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.

With fog obscuring possible landing sites in Spokane and Pasco, the wings icing up, and fuel running low after about forty hours in the air, Pangborn decided to try for Wenatchee.

He was familiar with the field; he knew that there would not be fog. With his mother and brother waiting on the ground in Wenatchee, Pangborn was assured of a welcome reception.

At a few minutes after seven on the morning of October 5th, 1931, the big red Bellanca flew in low over the hills east of Wenatchee, make a quick pass over the field while Pangborn looked for obstacles, and finally settled down to a nearly perfect belly landing 41 hours and 15 minutes after taking off from Sabishiro Beach, Japan.

The Pacific was not flown non-stop again until after World War II. For his trans-Pacific flight Pangborn won the Aviation League’s Harmon Trophy symbolizing the greatest achievement in flight in the year 1931.

After landing in East Wenatchee, the Miss Veedol was trucked to Seattle where the landing gear was rebuilt and refitted. (Arlington)

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