Round-the-World Flights

Pangborn & Hendon Round-the-World Flight

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Flown Cover	Pangborn Autograph	Herndron Autograph	Wenatchee Belly Landing	Pangborn & Herndron

Clyde Edward Pangborn & Hugh Herndon, Jr.
        Clyde was born in Bridgeport, WA on October 28, 1896. He grew up in the lumber camps of Idaho and graduated from St. Maries High School in 1914. He continued his education with extension courses in civil engineering from the University of Idaho. America's entry into the WW-I afforded him the opportunity to fulfill his lifelong desire to learn to fly. He enlisted in the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps and was trained as a pilot. After his discharge he did exhibition flying for Northwest Aircraft Corporation in Spokane, WA. While performing an "automobile-to-airplane" transfer at Coronado Beach, CA he fell from the speeding car and was seriously injured.
        In 1921, Pangborn joined Ivan R. Gates as a partner in the formation of the Gates Flying Circus. For the next nine years, Pangborn "barnstormed" across the entire US getting national recognition. The stock market crash of 1929 changed many things. Clyde teamed up with Hugh Herndon, Jr. forming "The Flying Fleet" and began to tour the U.S., barnstorming and passenger carrying but increased safety regulations and competition from the larger, single-wing, closed-cabin aircraft spelled the end of the Pangborn-Herndon air show. "The Flying Fleet" disbanded in February 1931.
        Clyde and Hugh decided to break the round-the-world flight record of 20 days 4 hours set by the Graf Zepplin in 1929. They choose a Bellanca "J-300 Long Distance Special" (aka J-300 Special) as the perfect aircraft for its range, lifting abilities and reliability. In July 1931 with their flight preparations almost complete, their hopes for an round-the-world record suffered a serious setback as Post and Gatty circumnavigated the globe in 8D 15H 15M. Pangborn reasoned that despite the Bellanca's slower airspeed, its greater range and fewer refueling stops with rough-field take-off ability would provide them the necessary advantage in breaking the Post-Gatty record.
        On July 28, 1931 the heavily-laden "Miss Veedol" lumbered down New York's Roosevelt Field and lifted off and headed out over the Atlantic on the first leg of their round-the-world flight. They landed in Wales, and flew on to London, Berlin and Moscow. Upon leaving Moscow for Siberia, they were almost 10 hours behind the time of Post and Gatty. Further difficulties plagued them in Siberia. Herndon, at the controls while Pangborn slept, lost his way and they finally landed in a village in Mongolia, Siberia. Back on course with more hours lost, they flew to Khabarovsk, their last stop in Siberia. They landed in Khabarovsk in a blinding rainstorm and settled deep into the mud of the runway. They waited out the storm for a day putting them over 27 hours behind Post-Gatty's time. This made them abandon their round-the-world speed attempt.
        They decided that they would try for the $25,000 prize offered by the Japanese Asahi Shimbun Newspaper for the first nonstop flight from Japan to the United States. They took off for Tokyo. Their flight path took them over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido and with the speed pressure off, they felt like tourists and took photographs of the Japanese coastline. On landing in Tokyo, they were arrested for having no papers and for photographing naval installations. After considerable diplomatic wrangling they were fined for their transgressions and released. After reluctantly giving the Americans permission to attempt the Trans-Pacific flight, the Japanese officials informed them that only one takeoff attempt was to be allowed. If the first try failed, or the flyers were forced to return after takeoff, the Bellanca would be impounded.
        Two major obstacles faced the Americans if they were to successfully complete the first non-stop Trans-Pacific flight. First, the Bellanca would be overloaded with fuel and second, they might not have the range to complete the flight if they encountered anything but perfect flying conditions. They solved both by moving the plane approximately 200 miles north of Tokyo to the 8,000-foot runway at Sabishiro Beach and without the knowledge of the Japanese, they designed a mechanism that would enable the flyers to drop the Bellanca's landing gear once it was airborne. This would effectively increase the airspeed by 15 mph or add approximately 600 miles to their range from the expected 40 hour flight.
        On October 4,1931 "Miss Veedol," burdened with 930 gallons of fuel and weighing in excess of 9,000 pounds (far beyond the manufacturers' recommended or even tested specifications) reluctantly took to the air and headed out over the Pacific. Three hours into the flight, they jettisoned their landing gear but the landing gear struts did not release. Pangborn crawled out onto the wing supports and freed the two landing gear struts. His experience as a wing walker in his early flying days had made the difference between a successful flight and a crash-landing (a belly landing with the landing gear struts in place could have proved fatal).
        The two fliers coaxed the "Miss Veedol" toward the US mainland for a near perfect belly-landing at Wenatchee, WA on October 5th, 1931. They made the first non-stop Trans-Pacific flight in 41H 15M. Their feat exceeded that of Lindbergh but strangely they received neither public acclaim nor financial success. They won the Aviation League's Harmon Trophy symbolizing the greatest achievement in flight in the year 1931.
        After landing in Wenatchee, the "Miss Veedol" was trucked to Seattle where the landing gear was rebuilt and refitted. Pangborn and Herndon then flew on to New York to complete their round-the-world flight. They had not established a new speed record, but they had been the first to cross the Pacific non-stop.

Visit the Spirit of Wenatchee web-site for more information on this round-the-world flight.
Visit the Khee-Kha Bush Plane Kit web-site for good & workable kits of the long-neglected workhorses from the "Golden Age of Aviation" (in collector's 1/72 scale).

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