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Dr. Hugo Eckner was the flight commander for the first flight of the German zeppelin LZ127 Graf Zeppelin, when it made its first flight to North America, in 1929. It landed at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, in New Jersey, on August 5th and two days later, on August 7th, it started a 21,150-mile around-the-world flight, which it completed in 21 days, 5 hours, and 31 minutes, of which 12 days, 12 hours, and 40 minutes were flight time, at an average speed of 70.23 mph. This photo shows the Graf Zeppelin at Friedrichshafen, Germany, in July of 1928. |
The German zeppelin LZ127 Graf Zeppelin at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, in New Jersey. |
Another photo of the Graf Zeppelin at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, in New Jersey. |
L-127
GRAF ZEPPELIN
THE
ZEPPELIN LIBRARY
NAVY
LAKEHURST HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Aviatrix Ruth Elder, with two boys, at the Port Columbus airport, in Columbus, Ohio, during the 1929 National Women's Air Derby, on either August 25th or 26th. She finished in fifth place, in the heavy aircraft class, of this air race, while flying a Swallow airplane. The photographer noted that she refused to pose alone, for this photo. |
The Stinson Detroiter American Girl, at Curtiss Field in Westbury, New York, on September 22, 1927, which aviatrix Ruth Elder and her flight instructor, Captain George Haldeman, used for an attempted flight across the Atlantic Ocean, from Roosevelt Field, in New York, on October 11, 1927, at 5:04 p.m. They flew about 2,623 miles across the Atlantic Ocean, in stormy weather, in about 28 hours, with Ruth Elder at the controls of the airplane for about nine hours, but they were forced to abandon their flight, due to an oil leak, about 300 miles short of their goal and about 350 miles from the Azores islands. They were rescued from the sea by the Dutch oil tanker Barendrecht, but their aircraft caught fire and was destroyed, along with the air mail that it carried, as it was being brought aboard the ship. Had the American Girl reached Europe, Ruth Elder would have been the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, which was an honor that later went to aviatrix Amelia Earhart, as a crewmember of the Fokker F.VIIb-3m Friendship that was flown by Wilmer Stultz and Slim Gorden, from Trepassey, Newfoundland, in Canada, to Wales, in the United Kingdom, on June 17th to 18th, 1928. Nevertheless, Ruth Elder was welcomed as a hero in Paris, France and in New York City, where she was given a ticker-tape parade. The American Girl, and the air mail that it carried on it, was destroyed in its crash landing in the Atlantic Ocean. Ruth Elder later flew in the first Women's Air Derby, from Santa Monica, California to Cleveland, Ohio, in August of 1929 and became an actress, starring in the 1928 silent film Moran of the Marines, with Richard Dix, and the 1929 silent film The Winged Horseman, with Hoot Gibson, but no copies of these films are known to have survived. She died at the age of 73, on October 10, 1977, the day before the 50th anniversary of her attempted transatlantic crossing, and her body was cremated, with the ashes scattered from an airplane above the Golden Gate Bridge, in San Francisco, California. The movie Glorifying the American Girl is based on her attempted flight across the Atlantic Ocean. |
RUTH
ELDER (1902-1977)
THE
1929 AIR RACE
MORAN
OF THE MARINES
Eugene Ely doing at spiral, in a Curtiss biplane, at the 1911 Brighton Beach Air Meet, which was held from September 8th to 10th. Ely was the first aviator to fly and land airplanes from the deck of a ship, which he did, in 1910 and 1911. On November 14, 1910, he flew a Curtiss Model D biplane from the deck of the USS Birmingham and on January 18, 1911, he landed a Curtiss Model D biplane on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania. |
Eugene Ely was killed, at 25 years old, on October 19, 1911, in Macon, Georgia, when his biplane crashed during an exhibition flight, before about 20,000 people. He, reportedly, jumped from the aircraft, after he had lost control of it in a dive, which he had started at about 300 feet, and he died at a hospital, about 11 minutes after he hit the ground. His last words are said to have been, "I lost control; I'm going to die." This photo shows his crashed biplane, with number 14 on the tail. He had survived a previous crash, in which he was knocked unconscious. He was later buried in Davenport, Louisiana. |
EUGENE
ELY
EUGENE
ELY AEROFILES
EUGENE
BURTON ELY
EUGENE
ELY WILLOUGHBY ON THE WEB
SAN
DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY EUGENE ELY
EUGENE
ELY'S FLIGHT FROM USS BIRMINGHAM
EUGENE
ELY'S FLIGHT TO USS PENNSYLVANIA
EUGENE
B. ELY
Carroll "Mickey" Eversole was an airmail pilot from from December 5, 1918 to April 30, 1919 and from November 24, 1920 to May 10, 1921. |
George B. Fernic, who was born in Galati, Romania, on August 5, 1900, was an aviator and aircraft designer, who founded the Fernic Aircraft Corporation on Staten Island, in New York, in 1929. He was killed in the crash of his Fernic F-T-10 Cruisaire, which is shown in this photo, with with registration number X9179, at an air show in Chicago, Illinois, on August 29, 1930, at the age of 30. His company also produced the Fernic F-T-9, with registration number NX120M, in 1929, which was a monoplane that had a plywood covered fuselage. |
Aviatrix Edith Foltz, on the left, with aviatrix Vera Dawn Walker, at the Port Columbus airport, in Columbus, Ohio, during the 1929 National Women's Air Derby, on either August 25th or 26th. She finished in second place, in the light aircraft class, of this air race, while flying a Alexander Eaglerock Bullet airplane. She placed third in the 1931 National Women's Air Derby and fifteenth in the 1932 National Transcontinental Derby. During World War II, she served with the Air Transport Auxiliary, in the United Kingdom, ferrying bombers for the Royal Air Force. She died at the age of 51, in 1956. |
EDITH
FOLTZ STEARNS
THE 1929
AIR RACE