Trans-Pacific flight

The Miss Veedol was the name of the first airplane to fly non-stop across the Pacific Ocean. Miss Veedol was a 1931 Bellanca Skyrocket J-400 Long-Distance Special, registration NR796W. It was built at Bellanca Airfield in New Castle, Delaware. It could carry 800 gallons of fuel.

On October 5, 1931, Clyde Pangborn with co-pilot Hugh Herndon crash-landed the plane in the hills of East Wenatchee, Washington State. They became the first men to fly non-stop across the northern Pacific Ocean. They took off from Sabishiro Beach, Misawa, Aomori Prefecture, Japan.

Several complications hampered the flight. Pangborn and Herndon's maps and charts were stolen by a Japanese nationalist group who wanted a Japanese pilot to be the first to complete the endeavor.

They also had extremely precise calculations for their flight, leaving no room for error. Miss Veedol had to be overweighted with fuel, way beyond the manufacturer's recommendation (650 gallons stock was expanded to 950 gallons), and they would need to abandon their landing gear after take-off to reduce drag.

Pangborn and Herndon finally took off on October 4, 1931 from Sabishiro Beach, Misawa, Aomori, Japan. The destination was Seattle, Washington, just under 5500 miles (8500 km) away. (A distance exceeding Charles Lindbergh's flight from New York to Paris by 2000 miles.)

Immediately after take-off, a problem arose. The device intended to jettison the landing gear partially failed. The gear was ejected, but the two root struts remained. Pangborn was forced to climb out on the wing supports barefoot at 14,000 feet in the air to remove the struts.

Due to fog in both Seattle and Spokane, Washington, Pangborn and Herndon landed in Fancher Field in East Wenatchee, Washington on October 5, 1931, after 41 hours and 15 minutes of flying.

Pangborn and Herndon won the 1931 Harmon Trophy, for the greatest achievement in flying for that year.

Source: Wikipedia

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