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Miss Veedol
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Miss Veedol
Miss Veedol was the first aeroplane to fly non-stop across the Pacific Ocean. On October 5, 1931, Clyde Pangborn and co-pilot Hugh Herndon landed in the hills of East Wenatchee, Washington, following a 41-hour flight from Sabishiro Beach, Misawa, Japan, across the northern Pacific. The flight won the pair the 1931 Harmon Trophy in recognition of the greatest achievement in flight for that year.
Miss Veedol was later sold and renamed The American Nurse. On a 1932 flight from New York City to Rome for aviation medicine research, she was last sighted by an ocean liner in the eastern Atlantic, before disappearing without a trace.
Miss Veedol was a 1931 Bellanca CH-400 or Bellanca J-300 Long-Distance Special, registration NR796W. It was built at Bellanca Airfield in New Castle, Delaware. It could carry 696 US gallons (2,630 L) of fuel. 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 the landing gear. Miss Veedol carried an initial load of 915 US gallons (3,460 L) of aviation gasoline on her record-breaking flight.
Miss Veedol was named for the motor oil brand, as it was sponsored by Veedol's producer, the Tide Water Oil Company (Tydol). Herndon's mother, Alice Carter Herndon, was the heiress of the Tide Water Oil Company.
Pangborn and Herndon had been trying to set a speed record for a round-the-world flight, but after a number of delays along the way including a damaging landing in Khabarovsk, in the Soviet Far East, they found themselves 27 hours behind schedule and had to concede to the record set earlier that 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 Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun had offered a $25,000 prize.
Loaded well beyond the manufacturer's maximum operating weight, on October 4, 1931 (Japanese time), 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 takeoff, but two supporting struts remained attached, making it necessary for Pangborn to climb out onto the wing struts in flight to remove them manually. Pangborn subsequently criticized Herndon for his alleged negligence in allowing the engine to become starved of fuel. Pangborn had to dive the aircraft down to 1400 feet before the engine restarted. Later, Pangborn, needing some sleep, instructed Herndon to wake him when he saw the city lights of Vancouver, Canada. However, Herndon wandered off-course and missed both Vancouver and Seattle.
Upon reaching the Pacific Northwest they found that the weather was cloudy and rainy over most of the area. They first considered going on to Boise, Idaho, to add the "longest flight" to their "nonstop Pacific crossing" record. Soon, they found that weather would prevent their landing in Boise, so they turned towards Spokane, Washington. When the weather also prevented their landing there, they headed southwest towards Pasco in the Tri-Cities area of the state. When that failed, they finally headed towards Wenatchee to land at Fancher Field, far from town. There, they had to make a belly landing because they had jettisoned 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. The bent propeller, the only part of the plane that is known to exist, is exhibited in the Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center in Wenatchee, Washington.
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Miss Veedol
Miss Veedol was the first aeroplane to fly non-stop across the Pacific Ocean. On October 5, 1931, Clyde Pangborn and co-pilot Hugh Herndon landed in the hills of East Wenatchee, Washington, following a 41-hour flight from Sabishiro Beach, Misawa, Japan, across the northern Pacific. The flight won the pair the 1931 Harmon Trophy in recognition of the greatest achievement in flight for that year.
Miss Veedol was later sold and renamed The American Nurse. On a 1932 flight from New York City to Rome for aviation medicine research, she was last sighted by an ocean liner in the eastern Atlantic, before disappearing without a trace.
Miss Veedol was a 1931 Bellanca CH-400 or Bellanca J-300 Long-Distance Special, registration NR796W. It was built at Bellanca Airfield in New Castle, Delaware. It could carry 696 US gallons (2,630 L) of fuel. 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 the landing gear. Miss Veedol carried an initial load of 915 US gallons (3,460 L) of aviation gasoline on her record-breaking flight.
Miss Veedol was named for the motor oil brand, as it was sponsored by Veedol's producer, the Tide Water Oil Company (Tydol). Herndon's mother, Alice Carter Herndon, was the heiress of the Tide Water Oil Company.
Pangborn and Herndon had been trying to set a speed record for a round-the-world flight, but after a number of delays along the way including a damaging landing in Khabarovsk, in the Soviet Far East, they found themselves 27 hours behind schedule and had to concede to the record set earlier that 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 Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun had offered a $25,000 prize.
Loaded well beyond the manufacturer's maximum operating weight, on October 4, 1931 (Japanese time), 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 takeoff, but two supporting struts remained attached, making it necessary for Pangborn to climb out onto the wing struts in flight to remove them manually. Pangborn subsequently criticized Herndon for his alleged negligence in allowing the engine to become starved of fuel. Pangborn had to dive the aircraft down to 1400 feet before the engine restarted. Later, Pangborn, needing some sleep, instructed Herndon to wake him when he saw the city lights of Vancouver, Canada. However, Herndon wandered off-course and missed both Vancouver and Seattle.
Upon reaching the Pacific Northwest they found that the weather was cloudy and rainy over most of the area. They first considered going on to Boise, Idaho, to add the "longest flight" to their "nonstop Pacific crossing" record. Soon, they found that weather would prevent their landing in Boise, so they turned towards Spokane, Washington. When the weather also prevented their landing there, they headed southwest towards Pasco in the Tri-Cities area of the state. When that failed, they finally headed towards Wenatchee to land at Fancher Field, far from town. There, they had to make a belly landing because they had jettisoned 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. The bent propeller, the only part of the plane that is known to exist, is exhibited in the Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center in Wenatchee, Washington.
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