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Howard Hughes flew his twin-engine Lockheed 14-N Super Electra New York World's Fair 1939 around the world, in a eastward direction, in three days, 19 hours, and 8 minutes, with a crew of four, during July 12-14, 1938, and he crossed the Atlantic Ocean in about half the time that it took Charles Lindbergh to do, in his Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis, in 1927. His crewmembers were Henri Conner, Eddie Lund, Richard Stoddard, and Thomas Thurlow, and they were all given a ticker-tape parade in New York City, on July 15th, for their three-day flight around the world. The military version of the Lockheed 14 Super Electra, the A-28/A-29, which first flew on December 10, 1938, later proved to be a very successful maritime patrol aircraft, during World War II, and it was the first American-built aircraft used by the Royal Air Force, which gave it the designation "Hudson". Not only was the Lockheed Hudson the first aircraft based in Great Britain to shoot down an enemy aircraft during World War II, which was achieved by Royal Air Force Number 224 Squadron, on October 8, 1939, but it was also the first Royal Air Force aircraft, during World War II, to sink a German submarine with rockets, which was achieved by Number 608 Squadron, in May 1943, and the first United States Army Air Force aircraft, during this war, to sink a German submarine, which was achieved on July 7, 1942. About 1,500 Lockheed Hudsons served with the Royal Air Force, the Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal New Zealand Air Force, the Royal Canadian Air Force, and the South African Air Force, during World War II, and they were also used by the United States Navy. |
HOWARD
HUGHES
AVIATION
HISTORY HOWARD HUGHES
FAMOUS
TEXANS HOWARD HUGHES
LOCKHEED
14 SUPER ELECTRA
LOCKHEED
HUDSON IIIA
Clyde Ice, who taught himself to fly, in a Curtiss JN-4 Jenny, in 1919, was a barnstormer and commercial aviator, during the 1920's and 1930's. He was the first flyer in South Dakota to apply insecticides, for crop protection, by aerial spraying, and he helped establish Rapid Airlines, in 1921, with Walter and Russell Halley. He continued flying until he was 83 years old and he died at 103 years old. These photos show the Rapid Airlines Ford Tri-motor 4-AT-B Wamblee Ohanko (Swift Eagle), with registration number NC5093, that the airline acquired on May 28, 1928, for $50,000, and which he flew. This particular aircraft was also flown by Ben Gregory, another commercial aviator, and it was used, in 1928, for nighttime advertising, under the name "Ship of Flame", which had the words "The Ship from Mars" painted on its sides. In 1934, Clyde Ice left Rapid Airlines and, on September 1934, he helped establish Watertown Air Service, whose first flight he flew, in a Travelair 6000, in May 1935. On April 29, 1929, the Rapid City airport was dedicated as Halley Field, after Clyde Ice's partners in Rapid Airlines, and an airport in Spearfish, South Dakota was named after him. |
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A closeup of the second photo above. |
CLYDE
ICE, AVIATOR AND INVENTOR
SOUTH
DAKOTA AVIATION HISTORY
CLYDE
ICE FIELD
On January 1, 1914, around 10:00 a.m., Anthony Habersack Jannus piloted the first scheduled airline flight, with a Benoist Model 14 flying boat, from Saint Petersburg, Florida to Tampa, Florida, for Thomas Benoist's St. Peterburg-Tampa Airboat Line. This 20-mile flight took 19 minutes and his passenger was A. C. Pheil, the former Mayor of Saint Petersburg, who had won his ticket in a auction, for $400. Charter service was available at $10 to $20 and a regular one-way ticket, with a weight limit of 200 pounds, including luggage, was $5, while any additional weight was charged at 6 cents a pound. Anthony Jannus died on October 12, 1916, when a Curtiss H-7 flying boat, that he was testing for Russia, crashed into the Black Sea and his body was never recovered. His brother, Roger Weightman Jannus, was also a pilot for the St. Peterburg-Tampa Airboat Line and served, as a Captain, in the United States Signal Corps, during World War I. Roger Jannus died on September 4, 1918, in France, when his de Havilland D.H. 4 exploded in midair, while on a training flight with another aviator. These two photos show Anthony Jannus, who is seated on the right in this photo, with one of the other passengers that he flew. The St. Peterburg-Tampa Airboat Line lasted only about four months. A replica of his Benoist flying boat was made for a reenactment of his flight, in St. Petersburg, on its 50th anniversary, in 1964, but it failed to take off and a Lake seaplane was used, instead. It has been speculated that the failure of this replica to become airborne, was due to its excess weight and a incorrectly built hull. |
Anthony Jannus, who is standing, with some of the other passengers that he flew. |
ANTHONY
HABERSACK JANNUS
ROGER
WEIGHTMAN JANNUS
LEMP:
FIRST BEER DELIVERED BY AIRCRAFT
AVIATION
IN FLORIDA
ST.
PETERSBURG-TAMPA AIRBOAT LINE
Martin and Osa Johnson were aviators and explorers who used two Sikorsky flying boats for their explorations in southern Africa, during 1933 and 1934, and they were the first to fly over Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya, in Africa. Osa Johnson flew this Sikorsky S-38SB, which was painted with zebra stripes and named Osa's Ark, and they also had a Sikorsky S-39CS, which was painted with giraffe spots and named Spirit of Africa. Working out of Nairobi, Kenya, they flew over 60,000 miles, and photographed and filmed their explorations, which Martin Johnson wrote about in Over African Jungles and they presented in their 1935 film Babonna. Martin Johnson died in 1937, from injuries suffered in a commercial airplane crash, and Osa Johnson died in 1953. The Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum, in Chaunte, Kansas, is dedicated to their work. |
OSA
JOHNSON
THE
MARTIN AND OSA JOHNSON SAFARI MUSEUM
FLYING
SAFARI (1933-1934)
NATIONAL
AIR TOUR
S-38
CZECH
MASTER RESIN 1/72 SIKORSKY S-38