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A R C H I V E S

RECREATING HISTORY

     In 1931, aviator Clyde Pangborn accompanied by Hugh Herndon Jr. as co-pilot, took off from Sabishiro Beach near Misawa, Japan in a Bellanca Skyrocket nicknamed ‘Miss Veedol,’ bound for Seattle, Washington.
     Forty-one hours and thirteen minutes later, the intrepid aviators landed at Wenatchee, Washington becoming the first aviators in history to cross the Pacific Ocean by air.
     The story is especially noteworthy for air cargo because before the pilots departed upon their journey, they presented the town folk in Misawa with saplings from native Washington red delicious apples.
     The Japanese in turn gave the fliers half dozen Jonathon apples from a local farm to enjoy during their epoch flight.
     Today, all over Japan, red delicious apple descendants from those first saplings are still being consumed.      Even better in 1981, Misawa Japan and Wenatchee Washington recalling their historic connection became sister cities.
     Now a group of pilots are rebuilding an exact replica of the ‘Miss Veedol’ with more than $600,000 raised by people on both sides of the mighty Pacific Ocean, in two small towns.
      Next year to celebrate the Centennial of Flight—100 years since Kitty Hawk, the Pacific will once again be flown, as before by Clyde Pangborn, as Miss Veedol again takes wing from Misawa arriving at Pangborn Memorial Airport in Washington all the way from Japan. More info.: pangborn@bossig.com.

     They Fly By Night . . . Once upon a time, in 1942 modern air cargo was born above the rugged Himalayas, as the China India Burma Hump airlift carried vital war supplies between Assam, India and Kunming, China.
     The air bridge connected the “double bubble” fuselage (an early method for aircraft pressurization) Curtiss C-46 Commando with the Curtiss P-40’s of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) better known as Flying Tigers.
     Little did anyone imagine that one of the Curtiss C-46 transport pilots, carrying fuel and supplies over the Hump, named Robert Prescott, would return to the U.S. to lead an all-cargo airline of war-surplus Commandos called Flying Tigers.
     Coming in January, here on aircargonews.com, an exclusive preview chapter “Over The Hump” from the landmark book “Air Cargo—An Illustrated History” to be published by Air Cargo News next summer.