>From Wikipedia - Will Rogers In 1935 the famed aviator <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiley_Post> Wiley Post, an Oklahoman, became interested in surveying a mail-and-passenger air route from the West Coast to Russia. He attached a <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Explorer> Lockheed Explorer wing to a <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Model_9_Orion> Lockheed Orion fuselage, fitting floats for landing in the lakes of Alaska and Siberia. Rogers visited Post often at the airport in Burbank, California while he was modifying the aircraft, and asked Post to fly him through Alaska in search of new material for his newspaper column. When the floats Post had ordered did not arrive at Seattle in time, he used a set that was designed for a larger type, making the already nose-heavy hybrid aircraft still more nose-heavy. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Rogers#cite_note-34> [35] However, according to the research of Bryan Sterling, the floats were the correct type for the aircraft. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Rogers#cite_note-35> [36]
After making a test flight in July, Post and Rogers left Seattle in the Lockheed Orion-Explorer in early August and then made several stops in Alaska. While Post piloted the aircraft, Rogers wrote his columns on his typewriter. Before they left Fairbanks they signed and mailed a burgee belonging to the South Coast Corinthian Yacht Club. The signed burgee is on display at South Coast Corinthian Yacht Club in Marina del Rey, California. On August 15, they left Fairbanks, Alaska for Point Barrow. They were a few miles from Point Barrow when they became uncertain of their position in bad weather and landed in a lagoon to ask directions. On takeoff, the engine failed at low altitude, and the aircraft, uncontrollably nose-heavy at low speed, plunged into the lagoon, shearing off the right wing and ending inverted in the shallow water of the lagoon. Both men died instantly. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Monday, March 14, 2011 11:08 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Liveaboard] U-505 calls to us Yes I have and it is fabulous! The SR-71 Blackbird they have there, on its delivery trip. went from the California coastline to Dulles Airport in one hour, ten minutes. That's about 2,500 mph. They even have a F-4C Phantom, an airplane I worked on for three years in the USAF, and a DC-3, the first airplane I ever flew in. But my big mystery is that they have the Winnie Mae, an airplane I thought crashed and killed the pilot and Will Rogers, a celebrity passenger. Norm S/V Bandersnatch If you have not seen it yet the Annex at the Smithsonian Air Museum at Dulles Airport shows more stuff than you can see in two lifetimes, IMHO. Ed
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