The Miss Veedol was the first airplane to fly non-stop across the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

. On October 5, 1931, Clyde Pangborn

Clyde Pangborn

Clyde Edward Pangborn also known as "Upside-Down Pangborn" was an American aviator who performed aerial stunts during the 1920s...

 with co-pilot Hugh Herndon crash-landed the plane in the hills of East Wenatchee, Washington

East Wenatchee, Washington

East Wenatchee is a city in Douglas County, Washington, United States along the northern banks of the Columbia River. The population at the 2010 census was 13,190, a 129.1% increase over the 2000 census....

, 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

Misawa, Aomori

is a city located in eastern Aomori Prefecture in the Tōhoku region of Japan. As of 2009, the city had an estimated population of 42,399 and a density of 353 persons per km²...

, Aomori Prefecture

Aomori Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku Region. The capital is the city of Aomori.- History :Until the Meiji Restoration, the area of Aomori prefecture was known as Mutsu Province....

, Japan won them the 1931 Harmon Trophy

Harmon Trophy

The Harmon Trophy is a set of three international trophies, to be awarded annually to the world's outstanding aviator, aviatrix , and aeronaut...

, symbolizing the greatest achievement in flight for that year.

Aircraft

Miss Veedol was a 1931 Bellanca Skyrocket J-400

Bellanca CH-400

-See also:...

 Long-Distance Special, registration NR796W.. It was built at Bellanca Airfield

Bellanca Airfield

The Bellanca Airfield was an airfield, aircraft plant, and service hangar built in 1928 by Giuseppe Bellanca and Henry B. DuPont in New Castle, Delaware...

 in New Castle, Delaware

New Castle, Delaware

New Castle is a city in New Castle County, Delaware, six miles south of Wilmington, situated on the Delaware River. In 1900, 3,380 people lived here; in 1910, 3,351...

. It could carry 800 gallons 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 their landing gear. The Miss Veedol carried an initial load of 915 gallons of aviation gasoline on her record-breaking flight.

Since there was an American brand of lubricating motor oil named "Veedol" back then, 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

Khabarovsk

Khabarovsk is the largest city and the administrative center of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia. It is located some from the Chinese border. It is the second largest city in the Russian Far East, after Vladivostok. The city became the administrative center of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, they realised that they could not better the record set the previous year by Wiley Post

Wiley Post

Wiley Hardeman Post was a famed American aviator, the first pilot to fly solo around the world. Also known for his work in high altitude flying, Post helped develop one of the first pressure suits. His Lockheed Vega aircraft, the Winnie Mae, was on display at the National Air and Space Museum's...

 and Harold Gatty

Harold Gatty

Harold Charles Gatty was an Australian navigator, inventor, and aviation pioneer...

. 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

Asahi Shimbun

The is the second most circulated out of the five national newspapers in Japan. Its circulation, which was 7.96 million for its morning edition and 3.1 million for its evening edition as of June 2010, was second behind that of Yomiuri Shimbun...

 had offered a $50,000 prize.

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.

Landing in America

Upon reaching the Pacific Northwest

Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...

, 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. When they got there, they had to make a belly landing

Belly landing

A belly landing or gear-up landing occurs when an aircraft lands without its landing gear fully extended and uses its underside, or belly, as its primary landing device...

 because they had disposed of Miss Veedols 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.

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. 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.) 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.

Fate of 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) for a record New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 to Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 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

Floyd Bennett Field

Floyd Bennett Field is New York City's first municipal airport. While no longer used as an operational commercial, military or general aviation airfield, the New York Police Department still flies its helicopters from its heliport base there...

 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

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

; she was the last surviving person to have ever flown in Miss Veedol (as The American Nurse).

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.

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.

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.